The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Abbott, Jacob

ABBOTT, Jacob, American juvenile writer and educator: b. Hallowell, Me., 14 Nov. 1803; d. 31 Oct. 1879. He was graduated at Bowdoin 1820, studied at Andover, and was ordained a Congregational minister; professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Amherst 1825–29; then established the Mt. Vernon girls' school in Boston, and in 1834 organized and was pastor of the Eliot Church in Roxbury. In 1839 he removed permanently to Farmington, Me., and devoted himself to literary work there and in New York, assisting also in female education (see the preceding title), writing extensively for the early Harper's Monthly, of which he was one of the chief bulwarks, traveling widely abroad, and writing the classic juveniles of which the ‘Rollo Books’ are the best known type,– neither their usefulness, their popularity, nor their charm, has yet vanished. He had an excellent dramatic sense, a healthy balance, a sound business practically and a true understanding of and sincere sympathy with children, which makes his didactics charming to tightly constituted children; no boys and girls were ever less priggish than those in ‘Rollo,’ the conventional burlesques of which merely prove that the authors have not read the books, and even so are a testimony to their vitality. The chief of his more than 200 volumes are the ‘Rollo Books’ (28 vols.), the ‘Lucy Books’ (6 vols.), the ‘Jonas Books’ (6 vols.), the ‘Franconia Stories’ (10 vols.), the ‘Marco Paul Series’ (6 vols.), the ‘Gray Family’ series (12 vols.), the ‘Juno Books’ (6 vols.), the ‘Rainbow Series’ (5 vols.), and several other series of science and travel for the young; more than 20 of the series of illustrated histories of which his brother J. S. C. contributed, and 8 vols. of American history. He also edited historical text-books and compiled school readers.