"The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it." - Elbert Hubbard.

Elbert Hubbard believed that life was expression, and that stagnation was death. His life shows that he lived by that creed. In some ways, his life seems almost manic in productivity, activity, and change. He wrote, by most estimates, seven million words; ran a business with more than 500 employees; lectured across the United States; wrote nearly all of the copy for three monthly magazines; and had an extramarital affair and children with two women. This chronology, which will continue to be developed, shows some of the key events in the life of this remarkable man:

1856: On June 19, 1856 Elbert Hubbard was born in Bloomington, Illinois. His father, Silas, is a country doctor. His ancestors were Irish and English. One grandfather had been a bookbinder in Philadelphia, interestingly enough.

1872: Hubbard leaves home at age 16 for Chicago.

1876: Hubbard after stints at odd jobs also begins to write articles for newspapers.

1880: Hubbard moves to Buffalo, New York to work selling soap for the Larkin Company. He is extraordinarily successful, and also continues to write articles for newspapers.

1883: Hubbard marries Bertha Crawford, of Hudson Illinois. They move to Buffalo, and then soon to East Aurora.

1891: William Morris founds the Kelmscott Press in England.
1891 Hubbard's first book, The Man is published under the pseudonym Aspasia Hobbs (J.S. Ogilvie, N.Y 1891). This book was written in collaboration with Alice Moore, and while Hubbard's affair with her was on-going.

1892: Though highly successful at developing sales tools for Larkin, Hubbard cashes out of Larkin.

1893: Hubbard begins to work for the Arena Publishing Company in Boston. Bertha is still living in East Aurora. Alice lives in Higham, MA.
1893: Hubbard attends Harvard for the summer semester, taking English Lit classes. His experience led him to view formal education with disdain -- and to praise 'the school of life' -- as evidenced by later entries in The Roycroft Dictionary (e.g., "Scholar: An ornate fossil...."). It also inspired his second novel. See 1894.
1893: One Day, a Tale of the Prairies is published by Arena Publishing Company.
1893: Hubbard returns to East Aurora from Boston.

1894: Hubbard's third novel, Forbes of Harvard (Arena 1894) is published. In addition, in Arena magazine he publishes The Rights of Tramps and A New Disease.
1894: It is in June of this year that Hubbard may have met William Morris. There is no actual evidence that a meeting took place (there is no mention of any Hubbard visit in any of Morris' letters, for example), and the anecdotes of the meeting reported years later by Hubbard do not match up with the facts (for example Hubbard says he saw sheets for the Kelmscott Chaucer being printed, but that didn't happen til months after his visit). Bert in the February 1916 Fra later wrote that on June 30, 1896 but that they met only Mr. Cockerel and Mrs. Peddie, but that Morris himself was sick in bed. Did the meeting happen?
1894: Putnam's publishes Hubbard's No Enemy But Himself, which, unlike his earlier works, meets with critical acclaim and some commercial success.

1895: January sees the publication of the first Little Journeys monthly magazine: the subject, George Eliot.
1895: In June, Hubbard begins publication of The Philistine. True to form, 2,500 copies of the first issue were published and sent in what must have been the first targeted mailing of its size to leading thinkers around the country. Although more than 1,100 similar "chap books" were published at the turn of the century, only the Phil survived more than five years. Indeed, the magazine ran for the next twenty years, ending only when Hubbard's life ended on the Lusitania.
1895: In September, Taber and Hubbard begin work printing Song of Songs
1895: In November, the first volume of the Philistineis bound, making it the first bound volume of the new shops. (It, and the first few other books of the shops, were bound by a separate firm in Buffalo. This continued until 1897, and the hiring of Kinder.)

1896: In January, the first book of the press, The Song of Songs is completed. It is met with less-than-enthusiastic evaluations of its aesthetics.
1896: It was during this time that W.W. Denslow heard of the publication of Song of Songs. He sent a drawing to Hubbard with a request for a copy. Hubbard recognized his talent, and Denslow was a regular visitor -- often staying a month or more -- in East Aurora for the next several years.
1896: by late 1896, the shops had 20 employees. However, binding was still done by a separate company in Buffalo.

1897: Louis H. Kinder is hired by Hubbard. Binding begins at the shops.

1898: Jerom Connor comes to the shops, bringing sculpting and clay modeling skills.

1899: In the March issue of the Philistine, the untitled first printing of A Message to Garcia appears. This will soon change everything, as orders for additional copies flood the shops - soon millions of copies are in print, and Hubbard and the Roycrofters are famous.

1901: The first biography appears: Albert Lane's Elbert Hubbard and His Work (Blanchard Press 1901). Hubbard is 45 years old.
1901: The shops have more than 300 employees
1901: Carl Sandburg visits the Roycroft shops around Christmas time. A year later he writes: "when future generations weigh in the balance the life of Elbert Hubbard, they will pronounce him one of the greatest men the world ever saw."

1902: Circulation for The Philistine hits its highest point of 102,000 subscribers.

1903: Dard Hunter joins the shops, staying until 1910. During his stints with the shops, he will design more than 100 books and pamphlets, and also have an impact on the designs of copper, leather, and other Roycroft products. Some have said that Hunter had more impact on book-collecting than any other person of his time.

1904: Hubbard for the first time meets Frank Lloyd Wright. They became friends and some speculate that Hubbard influenced Wright to wear long ties and unusual clothes and suggest that Wright's Taliesin East was influenced by East Aurora, as were Wright's views on mechanization.

1905: Carl Sandburg writes in To-Morrow, in "Subjugation of Elbert Hubbard," in defense of Hubbard and his socialist effort in East Aurora.

1906: Sandburg repeatedly defends Hubbard in the June and July issues of To-Morrow. Sandburg will lecture at East Aurora in 1907, and report his journeys to Frank Lloyd Wright. Hubbard would print Sandburg's poems, including Wanderjahre in the Fra

190__: Dard Hunter delivers by hand an invitation from Hubbard to William Morris's daughter, asking her to visit East Aurora. Her response: "I most certainly will not go to East Aurora, nor do I have any desire to see that obnoxious imitator of my dear father."

1908: Around this time, Carl Sandburg calls on Hubbard with a letter of introduction provided by Frank Lloyd Wright. (Sandburg's house, in North Carolina, to this day has a Roycroft publication sitting on a desk.)

1913: Hubbard publishes "______" in the Philistine, resulting in him being charged with and convicted of indecency.

1915: Having decided to travel to Germany to interview Kaiser Wilhelm, Hubbard must get his passport rights restored. President ____ grants his request on ____, sealing his fate.
1915: _____. The Hubbards perish on the Lusitania.

1919: Upton Sinclair in The Brass Check devotes an entire chapter to "The Elbert Hubbard Worm."

1926: Felix Shay's biography, Elbert Hubbard of East Aurora is published by the Roycrofters.

1985: Richard J. Wolfe and Paul McKenna publish Louis Herman Kinder and Fine Bookbinding in America: A Chapter in teh History of the Roycroft Shop (Bird & Bull Press 1985).

1989: Elbert Hubbard's The Philistine - A Periodical of Protest (1895-1915) A Major American "Little Magazine" by Bruce A. White is published (University Press of America 1989).
1999: Elbert Hubbard, William Morris's greatest imitator by Jack Walsdorf published by the Yellow Barn Press.

All told, Hubbard wrote some six million words, including authoring two monthly magazines for twenty years. His works were read by millions, and millions today continue to read works by, and about, this most interesting and influential man.

Fra Magazines: Covers, Ads, & Notes

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
October. Here is the motto on the back cover.

First Ad (Furniture) in the Fra for Roycroft products

November. Here is the motto on the back cover.

Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad

December

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

January

Book Ad
Copper Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad

February

Book Ad
Book Ad
Leather Ad
Copper Ad

March

Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad

April
May
June

July

Leather Ad
Leather Ad

August

Copper Ad
Leather Ad

September

Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Copper Ad
Leather Ad (Leather screen) Book ad (Good Men & Great with Leather Buckle)

October

Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Copper Ad
Copper Ad

November
December

January

Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Furniture Ad
Furniture Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad

February
March

Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Furniture Ad
Furniture Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad

March
April
May
June
July

Furniture Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad

August
September

Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Copper Ad
Furniture Ad

October . Here is the motto on the back cover.

Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad

November

Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Furniture Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad

December

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October . Here is the motto on the back cover.
November
December

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November

Book Ad
Book Ad
Book Ad
Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad

December

January

Copper Ad
Leather Ad

February

Copper Ad

March

Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Furniture Ad
Leather Ad
Shop Ad (several like this in this issue - look at those products!)

April

Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Furniture Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad

May

Copper Ad
Leather Ad
Paper products Ad

June

Copper Ad
Leather Ad

August

Copper Ad
Furniture Ad
Leather Ad
Print Shop Ad

September

Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Furniture Ad

October . Here is the motto on the back cover.

Copper Ad
Copper Ad
Print Shop Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad
Leather Ad