Bok, Edward William, 1863-1930

Edward William Bok (born Eduard Willem Gerard Cesar Hidde Bok)[1] (October 9, 1863 – January 9, 1930)[1] was a Dutch-born American editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He was editor of the Ladies' Home Journal for 30 years (1889–1919). He also distributed popular home-building plans and created Bok Tower Gardens in central Florida. Bok was born in Den Helder, Netherlands to a wealthy, prominent family. After his father lost most of his wealth due to bad investment decisions, the family immigrated to Brooklyn, New York when Edward was six years of age. In Brooklyn, he washed the windows of a bakery shop after school to help support his family. His family was so poor that in addition he used to go into the street with a basket every day and collect stray bits of coal that had fallen in the gutter where the coal wagons had delivered fuel.[2] By the time Bok was in his early teens, he was required to quit school to aid his family with financial support. His first full time job, in 1876, was as an office boy with the Western Union Telegraph company.[3]

In 1882, Bok began work with Henry Holt and Company as a stenographer while also taking classes in the evenings.[4] In 1884, he accepted an offer from Charles Scribner's Sons to became its advertising manager. From 1884 until 1887, Bok was the editor of The Brooklyn Magazine, and in 1886, he founded the Bok Syndicate Press, "the country's third syndicate with 137 newspapers subscribed".[5]

After moving to Philadelphia in 1889, he obtained the editorship of Ladies' Home Journal when its founder and editor Louisa Knapp Curtis stepped down to a less intense role at the popular, nationally circulated publication. It was published by Cyrus Curtis, who had an established publishing empire that included many newspapers and magazines.[6]

In 1896, Bok married Mary L. Curtis, the daughter of Louisa and Cyrus Curtis.[7] She shared her family's interest in music, cultural activities, and philanthropy and was very active in social circles. Shortly before his marriage, he published an advice book for young men. In 1919, Bok retired from publishing.[12]

In 1923, Bok proposed the American Peace Award. Bok also established a number of awards including the $100,000 American Peace Award in 1923, given for the "best practicable plan for U.S. cooperation in world peace".[13][14] In 1924, Mary Louise Bok founded the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, which she dedicated to her father, Cyrus Curtis, and in 1927, the Boks embarked upon the construction of Bok Tower Gardens, near their winter home in Mountain Lake Estates, Lake Wales, Florida, which was dedicated on February 1, 1929, by the president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge. Bok Tower is sometimes called a sanctuary and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark. Bok is used as an example in Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People.[15]At the Ladies' Home Journal, Bok authored more than twenty articles opposed to women's suffrage which threatened his "vision of the woman at home, living the simple life".[19] One of his first commentaries on the issue clearly stated that "women were not yet ready for the vote".[20] The Journal's wide reach among American middle-class women made Bok a key ally of the anti-suffrage movement.[21]

Born in the Netherlands, Bok came to the United States with his family at the age of six. He worked in publishing from the age of thirteen. He founded the Brooklyn magazine and 1886 he established the Bok Syndicate Press. Bok became editor of Ladies' home journal in 1889. In 1896 Bok married Mary Louise Curtis (1876-1970), the daughter of Ladies' home journal publisher, Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis (1850-1933). He worked as an editor at Curtis publishing for thirty years retiring at the end of 1919. He wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning autobiography entitled the Americanization of Edward Bok. Bok had an autograph letter collection that he kept and expanded throughout his life.