John Punchard Jewett (1814–1884) was a Boston publisher, best known for first publishing ''

Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U ...

'' in book form in 1852. Jewett was a brother of librarian

Charles Coffin Jewett Charles Coffin Jewett (August 12, 1816 – January 9, 1868) was an American librarian, in 1848 becoming the Librarian and Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution before being appointed superintendent of the Boston Public Library in ...

. Jewett started a business in Boston publishing textbooks and religious textbooks in 1846, in addition to "egalitarian" pieces. By 1851, he had also moved into fiction, publishing ''The Sunny Side'' by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (the mother of

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward (August 31, 1844January 28, 1911) was an early feminist American author and intellectual who challenged traditional Christian beliefs of the afterlife, challenged women's traditional roles in marriage and family, ...

). In late 1851, along with his half-brother H.P.B. Jewett and partners Proctor and Worthington, he formed a second publishing business in Cleveland, which took on the responsibility of selling ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' in the west. Upon the urgings of his wife that it would sell well, he acquired the rights to ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' in 1852. It sold over 300,000 copies that same year. In 1854, Jewett published another bestseller, ''

The Lamplighter ''The Lamplighter'' is a sentimental novel written by Maria Susanna Cummins and published in 1854, and a best-selling novel of its era. Plot synopsis A female Bildungsroman, ''The Lamplighter'' tells the story of Gertrude Flint, an abandoned an ...

'' by Maria Susanna Cummins. The continuing demand for these two books required Jewett to borrow capital, which led him to have to declare bankruptcy due to the Panic of 1857. By mid-1860 he was out of the publishing field for good.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jewett, John P. 1814 births 1884 deaths American book publishers (people) 19th-century American businesspeople