George Andrew Bacon was born in Webster, Massachusetts on January 17, 1847. He attended Nichols Academy in Dudley, Massachusetts and entered Brown University in 1864. Following his graduation in 1867, he was the principal of Derby Academy in Vermont, then Gardner High School in Massachusetts. Bacon went on to study Greek and Hebrew at Newton Theological Seminary and the University of Göttingen in Germany. In 1870, he accepted a position as a teacher of Mathematics and History in the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and received his Ph.D. from Hamilton College. During this time Bacon was also the publisher of "The Academy," a journal of secondary education. In 1878, Bacon became the principal of Syracuse High School, where he remained until his partnership with John Allyn and the establishment of Allyn and Bacon in 1888.
George Andrew Bacon married Susan Lyman Hillman in 1871, and they had four children: Charles Edward Bacon, Paul Valentine Bacon, Ann Bacon, and George Morgans Bacon. He died in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on January 14, 1930.
