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 as I.K. Funk & Company in 1876. 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.
The publication of The Literary Digest in 1890 marked a change for the firm to a publisher of general reference dictionaries and encyclopedias. Norman Rockwell paintings served as covers for The Literary Digest until 1938, when it merged with the Review of Reviews, only to fail soon after.
Funk was also a member of a group formed to urge the simplification of English spelling in 1906. It was called the Simplified Spelling Board. It was established with the intent of making English spelling easier to learn.
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]
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 was editor-in-chief of the various publications of his company that in addition to The Standard Dictionary, included the The Jewish Encyclopedia, The Metropolitan Pulpit (later the Homiletic Review) The Voice, and The Missionary Review and The Literary Digest.
After Funk died in 1912, the publishing house eventually became a subsidiary of Thomas Y. Crowell Co.
Simplified Spelling
In 1906 Funk became a member of the Simplified Spelling Board that consisted of 30 prominent authors, editors, scholars and other distinguished public figures.
The Board was founded and funded by Andrew Carnegie because he believed that simplifying English spelling would help make English the world language of the future and and thus make it a force for world peace.[3]
Funk gave currency to some of the new spellings by including them in his Standard Dictionary. "Give" and "givn" appeared along with "give" and 'given', but the meaning of the words was referred to the more familiar forms. Also, in the word "infinitive" the final "e" is separated from the rest of the word by a single parenthesis mark, which meant that "the joint rules of the Philological Societies required the dropping of the letter. The word "slapt" appeared with the definition as "slapped" and it was the same way with "tho" and "thru".[4]
Interest in Afterlife
Funk was one of the most noted converts of his time to the belief that those who are dead can communicate with those who are alive. He asserted that he had 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, president of the Society for Psychical Research.
He was the author of The Next Step in Evolution, The Widow's Mite and Other Psychic Phenomena and The Psychic Riddle.
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&
- ↑ Carnegie Assaults the Spelling Book Query.nytimes.com. Retrieved June 4, 2009.
- ↑ Simple Spellers Start with 300 Pruned Words Query.nytimes.com. Retrieved June 4, 2009.
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.
- Simple Spellers Start with 300 Pruned Words Query.nytimes.com.
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