What do you think?
Rate this book
The Americanization of Edward Bok
This Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography charmingly chronicles the life of Edward Bok, the longtime editor of The Ladies Home Journal and a noted philanthropist. Bok wrote of his eventful life, "Every life has some interest and significance; mine, perhaps, a special one. Here was a little Dutch boy unceremoniously set down in America unable to make himself understood or even to know what persons were saying; his education was extremely limited, practically negligible; and yet, by curious decree of fate, he was destined to write, for a period of years, to the largest body of readers ever addressed by an American editor. . . ." Perhaps Bok's success was due to his willingness to champion progressive causes to the wide readership of The Ladies Home Journal. Bok advocated women's suffrage, saving the environment, public sex education, education on prenatal care and children's health, and pacifism. EDWARD BOK (1863-1930), American Pulitzer Prize-winning author, was born in Den Helder, The Netherlands, and came to the United States in 1869. He edited The Ladies Home Journal for 30 years. During that time, it became the first magazine to reach one million subscribers. Bok also wrote books such as Successward and America Give Me a Chance. He established a number of civic programs and awards, including the American Peace Award, the Harvard Advertising Awards, and the Philadelphia Commission.
316 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1920
44 people are currently reading
418 people want to read
About the author
Edward William Bok
65 books15 followersEdward William Bok (born Eduard Willem Gerard Cesar Hidde Bok; 1863–1930) was a Dutch-born American editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He was editor of the Ladies' Home Journal for 30 years (1889–1919). He also distributed popular home-building plans and created Bok Tower Gardens in central Florida.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bok
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bok
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
January 20, 2020
Every American should read this book.
Anyone seeking to become an American should read this book.
Every family should read this book aloud for family reading time.
Every homeschooling family should read this book aloud and also use it as a unit study.
Every high school student should read this book.
Every business major in college should read this book.
Every politician should read this book.
Every journalist should read this book.
Every writer or aspiring writer should read this book.
I wish I possessed the eloquence to adequately review this book with the respect and awe I have of Edward Bok's stories and words. With that said, I can't encourage you enough to READ THIS BOOK.
March 30, 2020
This is a very odd book, one that certainly wouldn't have won the Pulitzer Prize today, as it did back in 1921. It's an autobiography, albeit, told in the third-person, of the editor of the Lady's Home Journal, for a time the biggest magazine in America, which sold over 2 million copies a week. The LHJ was not a supermarket "women's magazine," like Cosmo today, but a magazine that published Rudyard Kipling, Bret Harte, ex-President Benjamin Harrison, Jane Addams's "Fifteen Years at Hull House," and some of the most important investigative reporting of the early 20th century. And its campaigns had real political effects. Bok's campaigns against the use of egret's maternal feathers for women's hats led to the passage of the state and then federal "Lacey Act," banning interstate shipment of illegally captured animals in 1900. His campaigns for the modern "open plan" house, featuring work by Frank Lloyd Wright among others, helped define early 20th century American vernacular architecture, just as his campaigns against billboards, where he paid prizes for people showing the removal of signs, reshaped American cityscapes.
Bok himself had a fascinating backstory. His semi-noble but unsuccessful father moved from the Netherlands to Brooklyn when Bok was six. After his father died, leaving the family in dire straights, Bok embarked on an almost too-perfect Horatio Alger tale of upward mobility. He began cleaning windows and hawking water and then lemonade at horsecar stops to women who could not leave teh cars (unlike men). His journalistic sense manifested early, when he went to the Brooklyn Eagle with stories of local kids' parties, understanding that everyone at them would buy the newspaper just to see their name in print. He began a side-career in writing famous people and receiving their replies, starting with Republican presidential nominee Rutherford Hayes, and then turned it into one of the largest signature collections in the country. In the process, he met almost everyone that mattered in America before he was 15, and got to work directly with Jay Gould at Western Union, as well as publishers Henry Holt and Charles Scribner (where he worked under Frank Doubleday in advertising, before Doubleday started his own magazine). He started his own Brooklyn Magazine, as well as a literary newsletter, and newspaper syndicate, which especially shared women writers and began the earliest "women's pages" in newspapers, usually as side gigs when he was no more than a stenographer. His work attracted the attention of Cyrus Curtis, who put in charge of LHJ at the tender age of 26, after which Bok married Curtis's only daughter and made a roaring success of his life. He accomplished much and accomplished it quick.
The word that will doubtless come to modern minds, however, when reading this book is "mansplaining," and there is much that rings fatuous and hollow to modern ears. Bok railed against women for failing in their "maternal instinct" when they didn't support his feathers campaign, or slighted their understanding when they continued frequenting French fashion houses. He attacked women's clubs for their insufficiently intellectual lectures, and railed against women's suffrage. Many of his campaigns, such as his work to "improve" the cluttered look of Pullman Cars or Americanize women's dress, seem mere pettifogging now. Nonetheless, his self-important but occasionally insightful book offers a personal vision of a forgotten world, one where women's magazines were among the most important publications on the planet.
Bok himself had a fascinating backstory. His semi-noble but unsuccessful father moved from the Netherlands to Brooklyn when Bok was six. After his father died, leaving the family in dire straights, Bok embarked on an almost too-perfect Horatio Alger tale of upward mobility. He began cleaning windows and hawking water and then lemonade at horsecar stops to women who could not leave teh cars (unlike men). His journalistic sense manifested early, when he went to the Brooklyn Eagle with stories of local kids' parties, understanding that everyone at them would buy the newspaper just to see their name in print. He began a side-career in writing famous people and receiving their replies, starting with Republican presidential nominee Rutherford Hayes, and then turned it into one of the largest signature collections in the country. In the process, he met almost everyone that mattered in America before he was 15, and got to work directly with Jay Gould at Western Union, as well as publishers Henry Holt and Charles Scribner (where he worked under Frank Doubleday in advertising, before Doubleday started his own magazine). He started his own Brooklyn Magazine, as well as a literary newsletter, and newspaper syndicate, which especially shared women writers and began the earliest "women's pages" in newspapers, usually as side gigs when he was no more than a stenographer. His work attracted the attention of Cyrus Curtis, who put in charge of LHJ at the tender age of 26, after which Bok married Curtis's only daughter and made a roaring success of his life. He accomplished much and accomplished it quick.
The word that will doubtless come to modern minds, however, when reading this book is "mansplaining," and there is much that rings fatuous and hollow to modern ears. Bok railed against women for failing in their "maternal instinct" when they didn't support his feathers campaign, or slighted their understanding when they continued frequenting French fashion houses. He attacked women's clubs for their insufficiently intellectual lectures, and railed against women's suffrage. Many of his campaigns, such as his work to "improve" the cluttered look of Pullman Cars or Americanize women's dress, seem mere pettifogging now. Nonetheless, his self-important but occasionally insightful book offers a personal vision of a forgotten world, one where women's magazines were among the most important publications on the planet.
July 6, 2022
AmblesideOnline year 11 biography option (their strongly recommended one). I NEVER would have known this book existed, much less picked it up and read it if it hadn’t been on the AO list and I would have been missing out! It was delightful to read! Lots of life lessons about working hard, thrift, humility, and so much more. There were also interesting antidotes about a lot of different authors and other famous people Bok met. I highly recommend!
started-and-not-finished
September 12, 2020Dutch-born Edward Bok (1863-1930) immigrated to America with his parents at the age of six, and subsequently rose from very humble beginnings to edit the Ladies Home Journal for 30 years. He was well-known in his day, and this autobiographical memoir (published in 1920, a year after he retired from his editorship) was popular enough. But for me, this was just a case of a poor match between reader and book (and maybe it's not even fair to the author to shelve it here, though I do so in the interest of completeness).
My attempt to read this book was made as a pre-teen kid; it was one of many books I found laying around my grandmother's apartment. Most of those I read, since I'd read almost anything in those days; this was one of very few that just didn't capture my interest enough to read much of it. (I read and liked a good bit of biography in those days, but of people who had done more interesting --to me!-- things.) Maybe my reaction would have been more positive if I'd tried reading it when I was older; but now, I'm just not curious enough about the author's life to want to pick it up again.
My attempt to read this book was made as a pre-teen kid; it was one of many books I found laying around my grandmother's apartment. Most of those I read, since I'd read almost anything in those days; this was one of very few that just didn't capture my interest enough to read much of it. (I read and liked a good bit of biography in those days, but of people who had done more interesting --to me!-- things.) Maybe my reaction would have been more positive if I'd tried reading it when I was older; but now, I'm just not curious enough about the author's life to want to pick it up again.
April 13, 2016
I was surprised to see that this won a Pulitzer, since it's so horribly written. Dry, stiff, wooden, peppered with clichés that must have been huge in the late 19th century - so many faces here are "wreathed in smiles," sometimes twice on the same page. Bok dropped out of school at age 13. Maybe he should have stayed in.
Bok's is the ultimate Horatio Alger story: arriving in the U.S. from the Netherlands at age 7 in 1870, not speaking a word of English, his father dying soon after, he and his brother had to support their mother. He was extremely entrepreneurial, selling water out of a bucket (with three "sparkling" glasses attached) to dehydrating riders of the horse-drawn trolleys of Brooklyn. When other youngsters copied him, he upgraded to fresh-squeezed lemonade and charged more. Whenever he saw some product he thought could be made better, he contacted the manufacturer and they always adopted his idea, and paid him. He began to collect autograph letters and met many famous men this way - Ulysses Grant, Rutherford Hayes, Henry Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Greenleaf Whittier - and whoever he met was so charmed by him that they introduced him to their famous friends. Thus it was that on a trip to Boston, via Louisa May Alcott, he met Ralph Waldo Emerson, who had already entered a "mental mist." (You might think Alcott would merit a mention in that particular chapter heading, but no. In keeping with the rest of the book, women don't merit much. The chapter is titled "Phillips Brooks's Books and Emerson's Mental Mist.") Bok went to Oxford to meet Lewis Carroll, but only succeeded in meeting Charles Dodgson. On the same trip he tried to meet Florence Nightingale, who was a recluse and wouldn't see him.
As a teenager Bok was stenographer to Jay Gould and Henry Ward Beecher. Gould offered Bok a position and a better salary, but Bok was turned off by Gould's manner (oddly enough) and wanted out. He wanted to get into book publishing; he had contacts with Charles Scribner and Henry Holt. (Already.) Long story short, Bok ended up as the editor of the Ladies' Home Journal for 30 years. He married the publisher's (Cyrus Curtis) daughter, who was 19 at the time; their engagement had lasted four years. She merits little mention in the autobiography. Which is really too bad, because she founded the world-renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, although she did so in 1924, four years after the publication of Bok's autobiography. As Bok admits, for most of his life he was so restless and entrepreneurial he couldn't even sit through a full opera or classical concert, until he became friends with Josef Hofmann.
Bok's storytelling style is reminiscent of Donald Trump's. Everything is "the best...the best...the best." I find this true of the entrepreneurs I know personally, as well. They are always selling - and ultimately, what they are selling is themselves. To those who aren't entrepreneurs, this comes across as hyperbole. Who except the most insecure need to constantly reassure themselves that their work product and their ideas are always "the best?"
In the Ladies' Home Journal Bok embarked on three separate projects to introduce America's women to the best in home architecture, the best in furniture, and the best in artwork they could hang on their walls. The magazine featured blueprints and building specifications for small-home design, which (according to Bok) were hugely popular. Architects were outraged at the loss of business. According to Bok, he got rid of America's parlors and replaced them with living rooms (or libraries). He moved on to furniture, publishing photo spreads of good taste and bad taste. Such was the pressure from his readers that in furniture stores across America, ugly furniture was replaced by good looking furniture and "within five years, the physical appearance of domestic furniture in the stores completely changed." He then moved on to artwork, helping the American Hausfrau replace whatever ugly abominations hung on her walls with reproductions by artists (actually illustrators, but who's counting) such as Howard Pyle and Charles Dana Gibson.
Somewhere along the way, Rudyard Kipling (Bok's friend) suggested that Bok name his Merion, Pennsylvania home "Swastika." Although Bok doesn't say so, it looks like Kipling's suggestion was adopted:
http://www.brynmawr.edu/iconog/uphp/s...
Bok became "vitally interested in the growth of women's clubs as a power for good", but by reading the yearbooks and papers put out by many clubs, he discovered they only discussed important topics on the most superficial level. Basically, the clubs were cesspools of idiocy, populated by morons. He published his findings in the LHJ, and the women's clubs were outraged. When one particular club threatened to "unitedly and unanimously boycott" the LHJ, Bok instituted a legal suit against them for violating the Sherman Act. (See what I mean? Trumpian.) He made sure that the particular women he sued were married to lawyers, and these lawyer husbands thought the whole thing was hilarious, according to Bok. "My wife could never see the humor in the situation," said one husband. Bok dropped the lawsuit when the women's club capitulated to his demands. Soon the women realized that Bok's mansplaining was correct and appropriate, practical and in order. Although they had been angry, they came around (according to Bok) to his way of thinking.
Where did Bok stand on the issue of woman suffrage? Well, the book's description above indicates he supported it. But his autobiography begs to differ. Before Bok made up his own mind, he tells us, he took a poll of his subscribers. The overwhelming majority of them were either opposed to the ballot, or indifferent. Then Bok undertook a systematic ("thoughtful," even) study of those states where women already had the vote and discovered that in those states, not much "had been accomplished" by allowing women a say in political affairs. Yet Bok kept his mind open, as he decided what position the magazine should take.
The arguments that a woman should not have a vote because she was a woman; that it would interfere with her work in the home; that it would make her more masculine; that it would take her out of her own home; that it was a blow at domesticity and an actual menace to the home life of America - these did not weigh with him. There was only one question for him to settle: Was the ballot something which, in its demonstrated value or in its potentiality, would serve the best interests of American womanhood?
After all his investigations of both sides of the question, Bok decided upon a negative answer. He felt that American women were not ready to exercise the privilege intelligently and that their mental attitude was against it.
Now, bear in mind that the person deciding this is an immigrant, someone who came to America at age seven. Bok had not been a citizen for all that long when he was deciding whether native-born American women should be able to vote. Bok also spends some time in his autobiography discussing the shortcomings of American men. Yet he doesn't suggest that underperforming American men should have the vote taken away from them. He briefly discusses some of the shortcomings of the American political system (for example, no one at all whom he spoke to could tell him, as a young man, whether he was eligible to vote, or how he should decide who to vote for). Yet these shortcomings do not suggest to him that American voters overall were not ready to exercise the voting privilege intelligently, because if they were qualified, they would try to improve on the political machinery and political education. It's only women who should be denied.
Bok took a foray into the Paris fashions and discovered that what was being imported from France and sold to American women was not what upper class French women were wearing, but essentially what French streetwalkers wore. He tried to convince his readers of this in the LHJ, but they would not be convinced. Paris labels were everything to a woman, even if they had been falsely sewn into an American-made dress, a woman desired nothing more than to toss her coat or dress over the back of a sofa and have every other woman present see the French label therein. (Bok's trusted female friends told him so.) Bok was bitterly disappointed. The American woman "refused to be awakened. She preferred to be a tool: to be made a fool of." After another battle, this time trying to get American women to stop wearing feathers,
His ideal of womanhood had received a severe jolt. Women had revealed their worst side to him, and he did not like the picture. He had appealed to what he had been led to believe was the most sacred instinct in a woman's nature. He received no response. Moreover, he saw the deeper love for personal vanity and finery absolutely dominate the mother-instinct. He was conscious that something had toppled off its pedestal which could never be replaced.
He was aware that his mother's words, when he accepted his editorial position, were coming terribly true: "I am sorry you are going to take this position. It will cost you the high ideal you have always held of your mother's sex. But a nature, as is the feminine nature, wholly swayed inwardly by emotion, and outwardly influenced by an insatiate love for personal adornment, will never stand the analysis you will give it."
When Bok finally retired from the Ladies' Home Journal, "the newspapers clamored for his opinions of women." He refused to give them.
May 31, 2012
I LOVE this book. I am reading it to Hannah and it is a great autobiography ( written in third person though). He was a brilliant, hard-working man who worked hard and is in inspiration to us. I encourage you to read it. It makes me smile.
July 14, 2017
I found this odd little autobiography while looking through the Pulitzer archives, where you can read it for free if you like, and was intrigued by the title. Who was Edward Bok and what did it mean to Americanize him? Turns out he was pretty famous and successful in his own time and his "Americanization" is a total "rags to riches" tale popular in the 19th century. Bok was born in the Netherlands and came to America in 1869 with his brother and parents. They were well to do at home but fell on hard times here and Bok grew up in poverty which gave him the overriding ambition to make enough money to support his mother the way she had been accustomed to in Holland. He is amazingly enterprising. First off, he changes the penmanship being taught in his school because it has too many flourishes and "wastes time". The principal goes along with this. So does the school board. Next, he sells water to coach travelers and gathers coal in the road. Then he quits school. He begins to collect autographs and finally meets every famous person in the U.S in the late 19th century. Poets, Actresses, Novelists, Preachers, even the President of the U.S and various Civil War Generals. They all love him and think he will go far. He does.
The book is all written in the third person. It's disconcerting as you keep reading, "the boy said..."', "the young man knew...", "Bok was aware that...", and you have to remind yourself that he's talking about himself. Eventually, he grows up and he has made all these connections through his autographs and he finally becomes Editor of the Ladies Home Journal Magazine. He is wildly good at it and takes it to new heights, the first magazine with a circulation of one million. Eventually, he gets it over 2 million. He changes America by making plans available for small, decently designed bungalow housing. He changes the taste in Art. He gets rid of empty parlors and teaches folks to just be happy having a living room instead of that wasted space (seriously!). He led the LHJ to become the first periodical to refuse patent medicine advertising and helped advocate for the Food and Drug Act. He innovated literary columns and marriage help columns and a lot of journalism investigative ideas.
He really did do all these innovative and unique things but since he spends the whole book talking about how good he was at it and trying (unsuccessfully) to sound modest, it's hard to not laugh at it. I'm sure it's the somewhat pompous tone of the times that causes this because I really did enjoy this book and honestly, Edward Bok really does deserve credit for having done all kinds of these things and more. All in all, I'd say he certainly did get Americanized!
The book is all written in the third person. It's disconcerting as you keep reading, "the boy said..."', "the young man knew...", "Bok was aware that...", and you have to remind yourself that he's talking about himself. Eventually, he grows up and he has made all these connections through his autographs and he finally becomes Editor of the Ladies Home Journal Magazine. He is wildly good at it and takes it to new heights, the first magazine with a circulation of one million. Eventually, he gets it over 2 million. He changes America by making plans available for small, decently designed bungalow housing. He changes the taste in Art. He gets rid of empty parlors and teaches folks to just be happy having a living room instead of that wasted space (seriously!). He led the LHJ to become the first periodical to refuse patent medicine advertising and helped advocate for the Food and Drug Act. He innovated literary columns and marriage help columns and a lot of journalism investigative ideas.
He really did do all these innovative and unique things but since he spends the whole book talking about how good he was at it and trying (unsuccessfully) to sound modest, it's hard to not laugh at it. I'm sure it's the somewhat pompous tone of the times that causes this because I really did enjoy this book and honestly, Edward Bok really does deserve credit for having done all kinds of these things and more. All in all, I'd say he certainly did get Americanized!
January 22, 2024
This right here is an *experience*. From the many vignettes, quotes, and anecdotes - unlikely to be found anywhere else - of incredibly famous American figures, to the time-travel-clear picture of an era now far removed from our own. Both the thoughts and attitudes which feel outdated now and the wisdom which is still completely relevant were shocking, eye-opening, and heartbreaking by turns. And all of it comes through the conduit of the insane, inspiring, often unbelievable life story of this weird, dumb, brilliant, charming, awkward, clueless genius of a Dutchman, who knew everybody, did everything he set his mind to, and (according to himself) shaped huge portions of our modern world.
Which is not to say that it wholly succeeds as a book. His skill was in newspaper and magazine writing, and that doesn’t translate perfectly to long-form narrative. There are several chapters detailing his business endeavors which drag on quite a bit (until he brings you up short by casually mentioning the fact that he started the magazine which eventually became Cosmopolitan, or that he spearheaded a publicity campaign which ultimately led to the creation of the FDA). I can’t help but suspect him of exaggeration and cherry-picking details in a lot of the stories he tells. And he did get my back up a bit with some of his less flattering opinions about women. But the last three chapters are worth the price of admission (so to speak), and I’m glad to have gotten to know Mr. Bok (or at least the version of himself that he wrote this book about) a little better.
~ Make you the world a bit more beautiful and better because you have been in it. ~
Which is not to say that it wholly succeeds as a book. His skill was in newspaper and magazine writing, and that doesn’t translate perfectly to long-form narrative. There are several chapters detailing his business endeavors which drag on quite a bit (until he brings you up short by casually mentioning the fact that he started the magazine which eventually became Cosmopolitan, or that he spearheaded a publicity campaign which ultimately led to the creation of the FDA). I can’t help but suspect him of exaggeration and cherry-picking details in a lot of the stories he tells. And he did get my back up a bit with some of his less flattering opinions about women. But the last three chapters are worth the price of admission (so to speak), and I’m glad to have gotten to know Mr. Bok (or at least the version of himself that he wrote this book about) a little better.
~ Make you the world a bit more beautiful and better because you have been in it. ~
August 26, 2025
Fascinating autobiography. I hope to visit Bok gardens and tower in FL sometime. Wonderful peeks into lives of famous people like Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Ward Beecher.
July 15, 2014
What a surprise to discover this gem! I usually read fiction, but this title showed up in a list of Pulitzer Price winners and I couldn't resist. This is one of those books that we need to read and re-read as America ages (we're getting old and grumpy about immigrants) and its citizens are no longer hungry for freedom. Our ancestors mostly came to America generations abo, and now we don't understand the new immigrants coming to our shores. We are starting to not act in the American spirit. I recommend this title.
January 5, 2012
What an incredibly intelligent gentleman far beyond his years. This is one man we all could learn from. Very very interesting. Held my attention from page 1.
January 9, 2024
More interesting than expected
An aspect of reading book lists, biographies and award winning books chronologically is the reality that so many books in these various lists bunch up in the same era. In one of my lists, the presidentialbiographychallenge , I have been reading, and re-reading so much about the period between the #spanishamericanwar and worldwari which involved the presidencies of #williammckinley ,#theodoreroosevelt , #williamhowardtaft and, most recently, #woodrowwilson which, between them, involved eight books. As so much history overlaps, particularly as they involve politics and world events, there are naturally recurring characters, some major historical characters, but quite often, obscure characters that barely warrant remembrance. One such character was #edwardbok . This seemingly humble, immigrant editor of the #ladieshomejournal turned out to be a tertiary but, impactful character as he spent time and had the ear of some of the most powerful people of history!
In his detailed autobiography, #theamericanizationofedwardbok , brought to my attention as the #1921 recipient of the #pulitzerprizeforbiography , teenaged Bok arrived in the United States without the ability to speak #english but, through a voracious consumption of books and never ending hustle that took him from selling newspapers to writing and editing them, then into book and magazine editing, marketing and publishing and recognizing the virtually unserved market of women's newspaper and magazine readership hr rapidly doubled circulation for his publications by creating content specifically aimed at this vital market, understanding the outsized role women played in determining household purchases. Realizing that homeownership was the ultimate American aspiration, he influenced how people thought about their home life, singlehandedly bringing architecture, gardening and art choices to a rapidly expanding middle class by upsetting the paradigms of American consumer choices. He also waged campaigns to expand rural and workforce housing for teachers and nurses in places that lacked doctors and childhood healthcare, waged war against patent medicines by not only refusing their advertising by creating columns for doctors to write on sound scientifically based medicine which included discussions on sexually transmitted disease. He helped organize the civilian volunteer sector to bring help and hope to our wartime soldiers and the communities abroad where they were impacting. Of course, he had a number of failings, particularly with his opposition to women's suffrage and yet he provided more column space for women he disagreed with to present his ideas in his pages, counting so many suffragette leaders among his vast network of friends. And it all started because he had no fear of approaching the powerful and asking for an autograph which turned into lifelong friendships.
Bok's contributions to an America entering the world stage are numerous and illustrate the value immigrants can bring to their new home country.
#readtheworldchallenge #globalreadingchallenge #biography
An aspect of reading book lists, biographies and award winning books chronologically is the reality that so many books in these various lists bunch up in the same era. In one of my lists, the presidentialbiographychallenge , I have been reading, and re-reading so much about the period between the #spanishamericanwar and worldwari which involved the presidencies of #williammckinley ,#theodoreroosevelt , #williamhowardtaft and, most recently, #woodrowwilson which, between them, involved eight books. As so much history overlaps, particularly as they involve politics and world events, there are naturally recurring characters, some major historical characters, but quite often, obscure characters that barely warrant remembrance. One such character was #edwardbok . This seemingly humble, immigrant editor of the #ladieshomejournal turned out to be a tertiary but, impactful character as he spent time and had the ear of some of the most powerful people of history!
In his detailed autobiography, #theamericanizationofedwardbok , brought to my attention as the #1921 recipient of the #pulitzerprizeforbiography , teenaged Bok arrived in the United States without the ability to speak #english but, through a voracious consumption of books and never ending hustle that took him from selling newspapers to writing and editing them, then into book and magazine editing, marketing and publishing and recognizing the virtually unserved market of women's newspaper and magazine readership hr rapidly doubled circulation for his publications by creating content specifically aimed at this vital market, understanding the outsized role women played in determining household purchases. Realizing that homeownership was the ultimate American aspiration, he influenced how people thought about their home life, singlehandedly bringing architecture, gardening and art choices to a rapidly expanding middle class by upsetting the paradigms of American consumer choices. He also waged campaigns to expand rural and workforce housing for teachers and nurses in places that lacked doctors and childhood healthcare, waged war against patent medicines by not only refusing their advertising by creating columns for doctors to write on sound scientifically based medicine which included discussions on sexually transmitted disease. He helped organize the civilian volunteer sector to bring help and hope to our wartime soldiers and the communities abroad where they were impacting. Of course, he had a number of failings, particularly with his opposition to women's suffrage and yet he provided more column space for women he disagreed with to present his ideas in his pages, counting so many suffragette leaders among his vast network of friends. And it all started because he had no fear of approaching the powerful and asking for an autograph which turned into lifelong friendships.
Bok's contributions to an America entering the world stage are numerous and illustrate the value immigrants can bring to their new home country.
#readtheworldchallenge #globalreadingchallenge #biography
July 17, 2024
I will quote some words which give a flavor of Bok's writing--in the third person.
"He never worked by the clock; always by the job; and saw that it was well done regardless of the time it took to do it."
"Bok's probe into the feminine nature had been keenly disappointing." (This was because he failed to convince his readers to give up French fashion and feathers.)
"women will work infinitely better under the direction of a man than of a woman."
"When others played, he worked, fully convinced his playtime would come later."
And a bit more humbly, "...even after having been for over twenty-five years in the editorial chair, Edward Bok was by no means infallible in his judgement of what the public wanted or would accept."
Another GR reviewer used the word "mansplaining" and that is appropriate. Bok may have done a lot of good in this world and had a lot of influence but one tires of his ego. 100 years later it is hard to accept that he was against women's suffrage. I am rating the book four stars because even though I was dismayed at some of Bok's attitudes, I was interested in his story--particularly in how he made such a success of Ladies Home Journal.
"He never worked by the clock; always by the job; and saw that it was well done regardless of the time it took to do it."
"Bok's probe into the feminine nature had been keenly disappointing." (This was because he failed to convince his readers to give up French fashion and feathers.)
"women will work infinitely better under the direction of a man than of a woman."
"When others played, he worked, fully convinced his playtime would come later."
And a bit more humbly, "...even after having been for over twenty-five years in the editorial chair, Edward Bok was by no means infallible in his judgement of what the public wanted or would accept."
Another GR reviewer used the word "mansplaining" and that is appropriate. Bok may have done a lot of good in this world and had a lot of influence but one tires of his ego. 100 years later it is hard to accept that he was against women's suffrage. I am rating the book four stars because even though I was dismayed at some of Bok's attitudes, I was interested in his story--particularly in how he made such a success of Ladies Home Journal.
April 7, 2019
Although this is a hefty book to read at more than 600 pages, it was interesting in several ways.
First, Bok writes his autobiography in the third person; an unusual, yet successful means to diminish the "I, I, I" feel. Second, the Bok's accomplishments are impressive: his scrappy attitude and work ethic beginning as a preadolescent when he came from the Netherlands to America in the 1870s; his assertiveness in requesting and collecting autographs of famous people (including Presidents), meeting and developing friendships with many of those people; his contributions while with The Ladies' Home Journal, and more. Lastly, he helped improve some of American society, such as coining the term "living room" in place of parlors and drawing rooms, mass production of paintings so the average person could hang art in his home at affordable prices, et cetera.
Bok's life serves as an inspiration for readers. I enjoyed this well-written autobiography.
First, Bok writes his autobiography in the third person; an unusual, yet successful means to diminish the "I, I, I" feel. Second, the Bok's accomplishments are impressive: his scrappy attitude and work ethic beginning as a preadolescent when he came from the Netherlands to America in the 1870s; his assertiveness in requesting and collecting autographs of famous people (including Presidents), meeting and developing friendships with many of those people; his contributions while with The Ladies' Home Journal, and more. Lastly, he helped improve some of American society, such as coining the term "living room" in place of parlors and drawing rooms, mass production of paintings so the average person could hang art in his home at affordable prices, et cetera.
Bok's life serves as an inspiration for readers. I enjoyed this well-written autobiography.
May 12, 2018
I visited the Bok Tower Gardens in Florida and picked up the autobiography of Mr. Bok, an 1870 immigrant from the Netherlands. His story explains his determination to make good of himself in America. From meeting U.S. presidents and other historic figures as a young man to his rise to editor of the Ladies Home Journal, he accomplished that dream. Lots of words I had to check in the dictionary - maybe the vernacular of 1920, the year it was written? However, I was a bit disappointed; I wanted to read about the establishment of the Bok Tower Gardens - but the book was written previous to that event. Nevertheless, an interesting viewpoint from a man always willing to put in the extra effort!
May 7, 2022
Amusing, not always intentionally. Autobiography of the publishing genius who turned Ladies Home Journal into a hugely popular & successful magazine...but who also was not in favor of women's suffrage, nor female editors-in-chief. Interesting (to me, at least) fact: He apparently invented the "jump" -- instead of printing a complete article on contiguous pages, you put part of the article in the front of the magazine, then have the reader turn to a page at the back of the issue to read the rest.
May 8, 2021
As relevant and grounding for today's reader.
This book provides relevance and grounding for people, despite having been written a hundred years ago. It is an account of a man's life who succeeded through hard work, clever ideas and belief in people. I'd say Bok has Stoic tendencies and that is no bad thing is in this me, me, me world we find ourselves in that is making people sick.
This book provides relevance and grounding for people, despite having been written a hundred years ago. It is an account of a man's life who succeeded through hard work, clever ideas and belief in people. I'd say Bok has Stoic tendencies and that is no bad thing is in this me, me, me world we find ourselves in that is making people sick.
September 20, 2013
In 1920, the former editor of the Ladies' Home Journal, Edward Bok, published his fascinating memoir, an exceptionally well-written book through which he candidly yet eloquently recounted the step-by-step process of his 'Americanization' from penurious immigrant Dutch boy to affluent pioneering American editor and philanthropist; hence, it is not a surprise that the work secured for its author both the coveted 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Biography/Autobiography as well as the Gold Medal of the Academy of Political and Social Sciences. Succinctly written using the third person narrative format, the book chronicles the humble beginnings of Edward Bok from when he was a child in Helder, Netherlands to how he and his family-like many immigrants of the time-fled to the United States as a result of the 'technological order' that brought about a wave of new opportunities. But it would not be in the world of hard-core industry where he would make his name; when Edward Bok left the Netherlands in 1870, he had but three things to sustain him: his family, his meager belongings and some advice from his Dutch grandmother-"...make you the world a bit more beautiful and better because you have been in it." {P. xxi} Through the acts of frugality, laborious toil, absorption of American ideals and visions of a better life, Edward Bok slowly rose above the unbending economic classicism that unfortunately soldified the roots of many families as well as their descendents into harsh blue-collar drudgery. Though he never received a collegiate education, because he quit quite early, his leaving school was not the limitation of his intellectual instruction. Life was, in fact, the expansion of it, for it led him to acquire his learning in a most unorthodox fashion. For people who never receive an education, there is, for the most part, a hidden kernel of regret that sometimes becomes everlastingly needling and tragically overwhelming. As that is the con, the pro would be that they would be liberated from the arrogant pretentiousness and bemused condescension that a liberal education can sometimed imbue in one who is well learned. Neither of the above plagued Edward Bok. To quench his insatiable thirst for knowledge about what the essence of success was, he wrote to men and women of eminence, asking them not merely for their signature, but for a piece of wisdom, advice. And many-including Henry Ward Beecher, Louisa May Alcott, Samuel Clemens, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, among others-did not hesitate in the least to proffer advice. What began as a simple inquiry into success, ended as a voluminous mass of autographs and lettes that revealed the most intimate thoughts and beliefs of some of the greatest historical figures in American history, of which no dollar value could ever be placed. Through this inquist, Edward Bok not only found connections and valued friendships, but he whetted his editing and writing prowess, innate abilities that later led him to work for Henry Holt & Company, Charles Scribner's Sons and The Brooklyn Magazine (as editor); it too led him to establish The Bok Syndicate Press and eventually assume the helm, for thirty years, of the Ladies' Home Journal as editor and then vice president of the Curtis Publishing Company-which owned the magazine. While in command of the LHJ, he cultivated it into a powerhouse that brought about meaningful modifications to the United States, i.e. the better-babies movement, the teaching of social hygiene to youths of both sexes, the beautification of American cities (of which Lynn, Massachusetts was a part), the improving of home architecture and railroad cars, and most importantly, the passing of the Pure Food and Drug Acts by Congress. It was in America where he was able to prove himself: "As the world stands to-day, no nation offers opportunity in the degree that America does...the United States offers, as does no other nation, a limitless opportunity: here a man can go as far as his abilities will carry him...America can graft such a wealth of inspiration , so high a national idealism, so great an opportunity for the highest endeavor, as to make him the fortunate man on the earth today." {P. 448} Durng the latter stages of Bok's life when he established the $100,000 American Peace Award, he did it because America gave him a second chance to work and prove himself, which is not always easy to come by. He did not adhere to the writings of Herbert Spencer, William Graham Sumner or Russell Cornwell, men with timeworn values who espoused the 'lordly' dogmas of Social Darwinism and the Gospel of Wealth-the former being "An ideology based upon the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin, justifying the concentration of wealth and lack of governmental protection of the weak through the ideas of natural selection and survival of the fittest" while ther latter was a belief "that God ordains certain people to amass money and use it to further God's purpose; it justified the concentration of wealth as long as the rich used their money responsibly." {P. 485 of America And It's Peoples: A Mosaic in the Making} Edward Bok clung to no person and no 'chic' belief, simply his faith, his industriousness and to humanity specifically. We need more Edward Boks in the world!
July 18, 2018
This an excellent book and I recommend it for every American. Edward Bok was an intelligent man and contributed much to America. My only disappointment was that he did not write about his wife, his children, and his religious beliefs. It was very interesting in that he knew many famous authors of his day. Mr Bok did appreciate his life in America.
October 13, 2018
A Dutch immigrant with little education who came to influence a generation through the most prosaic of vehicles, a women’s magazine, Bok’s is a classic story of migrant success.
.In a nutshell..
Work for your own success, but ensure that your achievements lift up the wider community.
.In a nutshell..
Work for your own success, but ensure that your achievements lift up the wider community.
Read
February 5, 2020هههه
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 8, 2021
Still Timely
Surprisingly prescient for being written in 1920. I’d heard of Edward Bok, but now I know who he was. A great American!
Surprisingly prescient for being written in 1920. I’d heard of Edward Bok, but now I know who he was. A great American!
November 10, 2022
Unfortunate that he was a narcissist and misogynist.
July 26, 2023
Fascinating self-portrait of an American success story. Vivid picture of late 19th/early 20th century America.
December 12, 2023
(I read this much earlier in the year.)
Such a quintessential American Dream memoir. Charming, if perhaps a touch idealized.
Such a quintessential American Dream memoir. Charming, if perhaps a touch idealized.
July 20, 2024
required reading for everyone
So many amazing stories, told concisely and with such love for this country! I wish I had read this in high school.
So many amazing stories, told concisely and with such love for this country! I wish I had read this in high school.
November 11, 2014
I first noticed this book in the gift shop of Bok Tower, a beautiful garden park and carillon tower commissioned and installed by the eponymous Edward Bok in Lake Wales, FL. Never having heard of him, I bought Bok's book (sorry, couldn't resist that one). With apologies for boring those more knowledgeable than I, it turns out that Mr. Bok, born in Holland and brought to the United States in poverty at the age of seven in 1870, worked hard and became very successful, first in publishing and most notably for 30 years as Editor of The Ladies Home Journal. When he assumed the latter role, the magazine was already successful, but he led it, by his own admission, to extraordinary new heights of influence and success during the first part of the 20 century.
Mr. Bok's story is an impressive one, and even after one makes allowances for his evident pride, his innovations and accomplishments at the LHJ were many and significant. It's clear that he relished his opportunity to elevate women's knowledge and importance through the magazine, and yet frequently in the book his evident low estimation of women's appropriate place in government and business is breathtaking. With his views -- and candor -- in today's world, Bok wouldn't last ten minutes in a position of prominence, much less as editor of a women's magazine. But he was a product of the time, and although his attitudes were unenlightened, his ideas were progressive. Further, he was tireless and fearless in pursuing them, and was responsible for much good.
All in all, Bok's is a fascinating career and story, and deserves to be better known.
Mr. Bok's story is an impressive one, and even after one makes allowances for his evident pride, his innovations and accomplishments at the LHJ were many and significant. It's clear that he relished his opportunity to elevate women's knowledge and importance through the magazine, and yet frequently in the book his evident low estimation of women's appropriate place in government and business is breathtaking. With his views -- and candor -- in today's world, Bok wouldn't last ten minutes in a position of prominence, much less as editor of a women's magazine. But he was a product of the time, and although his attitudes were unenlightened, his ideas were progressive. Further, he was tireless and fearless in pursuing them, and was responsible for much good.
All in all, Bok's is a fascinating career and story, and deserves to be better known.
November 29, 2011
I really enjoyed this book. This is an autobiography of a longtime editor of the Ladies' Home Journal from late Victorian times through WWI. He emigrated from Holland at age 6, hence the "Americanization" part. Of course, the book suffers (for readers of today) from the conventions of the time: the tendency to only praise, and to overlook some of the faults, of famous people (this is no tell-all), and the rampant sexism (there's a lot of references to "the feminine nature," "the mother instinct," etc.). I don't count these as faults of Bok; they are simply what one should expect of such a book from such a time period. That being said, the book was fascinating: Bok worked with and knew well many eminent Americans of this time, including but not limited to many presidents and authors. One of the most interesting parts of the book comes at the end, in which Bok discusses what he feels are the best and worst things about the America of the early 1900s. This book won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography/Autobiography (I think in 1919), and is an entertaining read.
August 10, 2016
I read this autobiography by Edward Bok as part of my Pulitzer Challenge (see my blog at http://pulitzer-challenge.blogspot.de/). It won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography and Autobiography 1921 and I have to say it absolutely deserved it!
Bok, editor of the Ladies' Home Journal for nearly 30 years, chose to write his memoirs in third person. His style is very readable. The reader is taken along his lifeline from his arrival in the United States, his first job at a bakery to support the family, into the editing business. As every other autobiography, the book of course is kind of self advertising. But it contains very funny stories about Bok's encounters with famous people of his time while on the other hand, the author also reveals his views on some topics to be taken earnestly. Very interesting, particularly form today's perspective, is for example one of the last chapters, where Bok exsmines the weaknesses as well as the strength of American society in connection with integration of immigrants.
Absolutely worth reading!
Bok, editor of the Ladies' Home Journal for nearly 30 years, chose to write his memoirs in third person. His style is very readable. The reader is taken along his lifeline from his arrival in the United States, his first job at a bakery to support the family, into the editing business. As every other autobiography, the book of course is kind of self advertising. But it contains very funny stories about Bok's encounters with famous people of his time while on the other hand, the author also reveals his views on some topics to be taken earnestly. Very interesting, particularly form today's perspective, is for example one of the last chapters, where Bok exsmines the weaknesses as well as the strength of American society in connection with integration of immigrants.
Absolutely worth reading!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews