Charles Coffin Little

Charles Coffin Little (July 25, 1799–August 11, 1869) was a U.S. publisher. He is best known for co-founding Little, Brown and Company with James Brown.

Charles Coffin Little
Born	July 25, 1799 Kennebunk, Maine, U.S.
Died	August 11, 1869 (aged 70) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation	Publisher
Children	Sarah Ellen Little
Relatives	Richard Aldrich McCurdy (son-in-law)

Early life

Charles Coffin Little was born on July 25, 1799, in Kennebunk, Maine.

Career

Little arrived in Boston early in life.[1] He entered a shipping house,[1] and around 1826–27 worked with booksellers Hilliard, Gray, Little & Wilkins in Boston, along with William Hilliard, Harrison Gray, and John H. Wilkins.[2][3] He worked there until 1837, when he formed his partnership with James Brown under the style of Charles C. Little and Company. Little and Brown had previously been clerks, and were later partners, in a bookstore in Boston founded in 1784 by Ebenezer Battelle. The name of Little and Brown's firm was subsequently changed, due to the admission of other partners, to Little, Brown, and Co.[1] Little was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1855.[4]

Personal life

Little's daughter, Sarah Ellen Little, married Richard Aldrich McCurdy.[5]

Death

Little died on August 11, 1869, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, aged 70.

References

1. Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1892). "Little, Charles Coffin" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
2. Boston News-Letter, September 23, 1826.
3. King's Handbook of Boston, 1881, p. 291.
4. American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
5. Weeks, Lyman Horace (1898). Prominent Families of New York: Being an Account in Biographical Form of Individuals and Families Distinguished as Representatives of the Social, Professional and Civic Life of New York City. New York, New York: The Historical Company. p. 386. Retrieved December 3, 2015.