Isaac Kaufmann Funk
Isaac Kaufmann Funk (1839-1912) was an American Lutheran minister, editor, lexicographer, publisher, and spelling reformer. He was the co-founder of Funk & Wagnalls.
Isaac Kaufmann Funk founded the business in 1876 as I.K. Funk & Company. The firm's first publication was the Metropolitan Pulpit. In 1877, Adam Willis Wagnalls, one of Funk's classmates at Wittenberg College, now Wittenberg University, joined the firm as a partner. The two changed the name of the firm to Funk & Wagnalls Company in 1890.
Early life
Funk was born on September 10 1839 in the town of Clifton, Ohio. He attended Wittenberg College (Now Wittenberg University) and Wittenberg Theological Seminary, both in Springfield, Ohio. Upon his graduation in 1860, he was ordained as a Lutheran pastor, and served pastorates in New York, Indiana, and his home state of Ohio. He made an extensive tour through Europe, northern Africa, and Asia Minor in 1872. Funk was a Prohibitionist and also interested himself in psychical research. He founded the Voice, an organ of the Prohibitionist party.
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In 1876 he founded the publishing firm of I.K. Funk & Company, with the help of a Wittenberg classmate, Adam Willis Wagnalls, a lawyer and accountant. In 1890 the name was changed to Funk & Wagnalls Company, to more accurately reflect Wagnalls' partnership. In that same year, Funk published The Literary Digest, a departure from the religious works earlier in his career.[1]
Perhaps Funk's most important achievement was his The Standard Dictionary of the English Language published in 1893. He worked with a team of more than 740 people. His aim was to provide essential information thoroughly and simply at the same time. In order to achieve this he placed current meanings first, archaic meanings second, and etymologies last.[2]
He has been editor-in-chief of the various publications of his company, including the Standard Dictionary, the Jewish Encyclopedia, the Metropolitan Pulpit (now the Homiletic Review) the Voice, the Missionary Review and the Literary Digest.
From 1901 until 1906, Funk and Wagnalls compiled the Jewish Encyclopædia. After Funk died in 1912, the publishing house eventually became a subsidiary of Thomas Y. Crowell Co.
Interest in Afterlife
He was the author of "The Next Step in Evolution," "The Widow's Mite and Other Psychic Phenomena" and "The Psychic Riddle."
He was one of the most noted converts to the belief that those who are dead can communicate with those who are alive, and had, he asserted, conversations with the spirits of his friends, Henry Ward Beecher, Rev. Dr. George H. Hepworth, once pastor of the Church of the Unity in Boston; and Richard Hodgson, late president of the Society for Psychical Research.
He died April 5, 1912 at Montclair, N. J. in his 73d year.
Selected Works
- The Complete Preacher, Sermons Preached By Some of the Most Prominent Clergymen (The Religious Newspaper Agency, New York . 1878)
- Great advance: Address by Dr. I.K. Funk, as chairman of the New York Prohibition State Convention. Saratoga, September 12, 1895 (The Voice. 1895)
- Next Step in Evolution the Present Step (1902)
- The Widow's Mite and Other Psychic Phenomena (Funk & Wagnalls . 1904)
- Standard Encyclopedia of the World's Knowledge (Funk and Wagnalls, Co. 1912)
Notes
- ↑ Wagnalls Memorial Library (Country Living/January 2009) http://www.buckeyepower.com/cl/index.asp?getPage=831&issueid=54
- ↑ Funk & Wagnalls 1877 (Index of Publishing Houses)http://paperbarn.www1.50megs.com/publishers/f.html#1877---FUNK%20&
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Huber, Donald L. 1999. Producers of Big Things: Funk and Wagnalls. Timeline. 16 (5). Columbus, Ohio: Ohio Historical Society. OCLC 55218023
- Funk, Isaac K. 2007. The Psychic Riddle. Gardners Books. ISBN 9780548102671
External links
- Dr. Isaac K. Funk Olddeathrecords.org.
- Psychic Phenomena Query.nytimes.com.
- The Psychic Riddle Books.google.com.
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