Edward
William Bok , born Eduard Willem Gerard Cesar Hidde Bok ( Den Helder , 9 October
1863 - Lake Wales , 9 January 1930 ) was an American journalist and
philanthropist . In 1920 he won a Pulitzer Prize .
His father was Willem Jan Hidde Bok (1829-1881), notary in Den Helder, his
mother Gertrude sick of Herwerden (1837-1907), daughter of a stockbroker in
naval affairs. After the notary by unfortunate investments reached a part of his
capital had lost, he decided in 1870 with his family to emigrate to America.
They settled in Brooklyn and acquired American citizenship in 1876.
The young Edward showed early strong entrepreneurial spirit. He learned several
important Americans know as the eccentric millionaire Russell Sage , the
railroad magnate Jay Gould and Reverend Henry Ward Beecher , brother of Harriet
Beecher Stowe . In the eighties worked Bok on from stenographer to chief editor
of several journals, first of Scribner's Magazine , then of Brooklyn Magazine
and finally, in 1889, the still existing Ladies' Home Journal , which was
published by Boks former classmate and lifelong friend Frank Doubleday. Under
Boxing editors grew circulation of several hundred thousand to two million in
1919. He knew among others Helen Keller to attract, for Ladies' Home Journal her
famous autobiography The Story of My Life as a serial would write.
Through his magazine had Edward W. Bok, as he is in the United States called a
great influence on the style of America. President Theodore Roosevelt wrote: "Bok
is the only man I ever heard of who changed, for the better, the architecture of
an entire nation, and he did it so snel and yet so Effectively That we did not
know it had bene before it was finished. "
Bok is considered the inventor of the concept of 'living room', living room,
replacing what used 'parlor' or 'drawing room' was called the best room or
upstairs room. He thought it was nonsense to an expensive room facility that was
used only on Sundays and at funerals. The expression 'living room' he used to
families to encourage the living room to use in everyday life: "We have what is
called a" drawing room. "Just Whom or what it 'draws' I have never been to see
bootable Unless it draws attention to too much money and no taste. "
Edward Bok married in 1896 to Mary Louise Curtis (1876-1970), the daughter of
newspaper magnate Cyrus Curtis, who was the owner of Ladies' Home Journal . In
1919 he left the magazine to devote himself to philanthropy. He settled with his
wife in Mountain Lake, a nature reserve near Lake Wales in Florida , where he is
a botanical garden moored on 100 acres.
The garden was awarded the 62-foot Singing Tower , which was built in neo-Gothic
and Art Nouveau , with a zestigklokkig carillon and a library. The tower and the
gardens were opened in 1929 by President Coolidge .
In his autobiography, The Americanization of Edward Bok (1920) he won the
Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 1921. The Dutch emigrants
remained in touch with his distant homeland. There are correspondences of him
familiar with, among others Jan Greshoff , Heijermans Herman and Johan Huizinga
, whose biography under the auspices of Edward Bok in America would appear
(1923). He was also one of the first presidents of the Holland America Society
in New York. In August 1921 he released an extensive visit to the Netherlands.
Edward Bok, a large book devourer, golfer, philatelist and autograph hunter,
died in 1930. He was buried at the foot of the Singing Tower and left most of
his inheritance of approximately $ 23 million to his widow.
They would marry in 1943 with the world famous concert violinist Efrem Zimbalist
(1889-1980). The grandson of the couple Bok, Derek Curtis Bok (born 1930) was
president of Harvard University from 1971 to 1991. He married Sissela, the
daughter of economist and Nobel laureate Gunnar Myrdal .
Books
Success Ward (1895)
The Young Man & The Church (1896)
Her Brother's Letters (1906)
Why I Believe in Poverty (1915)
The Americanization of Edward Bok (1920)
A Dutch Boy Fifty Years After , delivered by John Louis Haney (1921)
Edward Bok. An autobiography (1921)
Life, struggle, triumph. An autobiography (Wereldbibliotheek, 1923; translation
of Edward Bok. An autobiography )
Two Persons (1922)
A Man from Maine (1923)
AJ Barnouw, Holland under Queen Wilhelmina . With foreword by Edward J. Bok (New
York, Scribner's Sons, 1923)
Twice Thirty. Some short and simple annals of the road (1925)
AJ Barnouw, Vondel . With foreword by Edward J. Bok (New York, Scribner's Sons,
1925, series "Great Hollanders', The Hague, Nijhoff, 1926)
Dollars Only (1926)
You. A Personal Message (1926)
America Give Me a Chance (1926)
Perhaps I Am (1928)
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