Jonathan Leavitt (publisher)
Jonathan Leavitt was a bookbinder who later co-founded the New York City publishing firm of Leavitt & Trow, one of the nation's first publishing houses. Leavitt was also co-founder of another early New York publishing house with his brother-in-law Daniel Appleton. George Palmer Putnam, who went on to found a New York publishing dynasty, received his first job from Leavitt. Eventually Jonathan Leavitt went into business on his own, and after his death the firm was run by his son George Ayres Leavitt.
Early bookbindery. Jonathan Leavitt, publisher, began his career as apprentice bookbinder in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
George Palmer Putnam, hired at 16 years old by Jonathan Leavitt as apprentice and right-hand man. Putnam went on to found a publishing powerhouse of his own.
George Palmer Putnam was an American publisher and author. He founded the firm G. P. Putnam's Sons and Putnam's Magazine. He was an advocate of international copyright reform, secretary for many years of the Publishers' Association, and founding superintendent of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
George Palmer Putnam
Portrait of Putnam by Platt Powell Ryder (1872)