Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Brown, James

BROWN, James, publisher, b. in Acton, Mass., 19 May, 1800; d. 10 March, 1855. His entrance into active life was as a servant in the family of Prof. Hedge, of Cambridge, by whom he was instructed in the classics and in mathematics. He was next employed by William Hillard as a shopboy, and in due course of time became a member of the publishing firm of Hillard, Gray & Co. That firm being dissolved in consequence of the death of one of the partners, he joined that of Charles C. Little & Co., afterward Little & Brown, and remained in connection with it until his death. The specialty of the firm to which Mr. Brown belonged was the publication of law-books and the importation of foreign editions in the general trade. In each of those departments his literary knowledge and refined taste were notable, and materially aided in improving the style of book-making in the United States. A life of Mr. Brown, by George S. Hillard, was published in Boston in 1855.