Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Philes, George Philip

PHILES, George Philip, bibliographer, b. in Ithaca, N. Y., 15 April, 1828. He was educated at Ithaca academy and the classical institute of Dr. August Maasberg, Göttingen, and has resided in New York city since 1854, engaged as a bookseller and publisher. Dartmouth gave him the degree of M. A. in 1858. Mr. Philes is a fine linguist and a high authority on American bibliography. He has contributed to literary journals under the pen-name of “Paulus Silentiarius,” edited “The Philobiblion” (2 vols., New York, 1862-'3), and assisted in preparing the “Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima,” compiled by Henry Harrisse (1866). He has also issued “The Bhagvat-Geeta, or Dialogues of Kreeshna and Arjoon” (1807); a reprint in black letter of the “Proverbes, or Adagies translated from Erasmus,” by Rycharde Tauerner, London, 1550 (1867); “How to Read a Book in the Best Way” (1873); “Bibliotheca Curiosa: Catalogue of the Library of Andrew J. Odell,” (2 vols., printed privately, 1878-'9); and “Monograph on the 'First English Bible' printed in the United States of America,” with fac-similes, of which twenty-five copies were printed for private distribution (1887).