Halsey William Wilson (May 12, 1868 – March 1, 1954) was the creator of the ''Readers' Guide'', the ''Cumulative Book Index'', and the ''Book Review Digest'' and founder of the

H. W. Wilson Company The H. W. Wilson Company, Inc. is a publisher and indexing company that was founded in 1898 and is located in The Bronx, New York. It provides print and digital content aimed at patrons of public school, college, and professional libraries in bot ...

, a publisher. In 1999, '' American Libraries'' named him one of the "100 Most Important Leaders We Had in the 20th Century".

Biography

Born in Wilmington,

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

, Wilson was orphaned at the age of two, and raised by his maternal grandparents. When he was 12, he moved to

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

to live with an aunt, and later to

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. He attended

Beloit College Beloit College is a private liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin. Founded in 1846, when Wisconsin was still a territory, it is the state's oldest continuously operated college. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and has ...

, and later the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. He and a fellow student, Henry S. Morris, set up a student textbook store on campus in 1889, the roots of what would become the

. In 1891, Wilson first conceived the idea of a regularly updated catalog of books, alphabetized by subject. Wilson saved sufficient money to launch a service in 1898, investing $500 in the hope that he and his wife could enlist 500 subscribers to the service for a dollar a year. His first year, he would say later, "was memorable for some heartening endorsements, nearly 300 subscriptions, and a rapidly growing deficit". It was in 1900 that Wilson created the ''United States Catalog'' and the well-known green volumes of the ''Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature'', known to librarians, teachers and students simply as "The Readers' Guide". The ''Book Review Digest'' was introduced in 1905. By 1913, Wilson had outgrown his Rochester, Minnesota, location and relocated his business, in 13 railcars, to White Plains, New York. Four years later, he moved to the Bronx, and the H.W. Wilson Company became one of the leading publishers of contemporary reference materials. As a supplement to the general interest magazine articles in the ''Readers' Guide'', Wilson created more specialized guides to professional journals, such as the ''Industrial Arts Index'' (1913), the ''Agricultural Index'' (1916), the ''Education Index'' (1929), the ''Art Index'' (1929), the ''Bibliographic Index'' (1938), ''Current Biography'' (1940), the ''Biography Index'' (1946), the ''Play Index'' (1949), and the ''Short Story Index'' (1953). In addition to the subscription based guides, the H.W. Wilson Company published numerous well-known reference books, including

Joseph Nathan Kane Joseph Nathan Kane (January 23, 1899 – September 22, 2002) was an American non-fiction writer, historian, and journalist. He is best known for being a researcher who found the person that did an event first and what products, services, and inv ...

's ''

Facts About the Presidents A flexible alternating current transmission system (FACTS) is a system composed of static equipment used for the alternating current (AC) transmission of electrical energy. It is meant to enhance controllability and increase power transfer capabi ...

'' and ''

Famous First Facts ''Famous First Facts'' is a book listing "First Happenings, Discoveries and Inventions in the United States". The book's seventh edition (), published in March 2015 — includes more than 8,000 entries on 1,400 pages. The book was originally publi ...

''. He was awarded Honorary Membership in the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...

in 1945.American Library Association, Honorary Membership. http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/awards/176/all_years Halsey died on March 1, 1954, at the age of 85.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Halsey 1868 births 1954 deaths People from Wilmington, Vermont American publishers (people) American bibliographers American booksellers People from Yorktown, New York Beloit College alumni University of Minnesota alumni