BARTLETT

bartlett, john (1820-1905), american publisher and compiler, was born in plymouth, massachusetts, on the 14th of june 1820. he became a bookseller and publisher in cambridge, mass., and from 1865 to 1889, when he retired, was a member of the bookselling and publishing firm of little, brown & co., in boston. in 1855 he published the first edition of his _familiar quotations_, subsequently greatly expanded and long the best-known collection of the sort, and in 1894 (although it had been copyrighted five years before), after many years' labour, he published his _new and complete concordance or verbal index to words, phrases and passages in the dramatic works of shakespeare; with a supplementary concordance to the poems_--surpassing any of its predecessors in the number and fulness of its citations from the poet's writings.. in all of his work he was greatly assisted by his wife, a daughter of sidney willard (1780-1856), professor of hebrew at harvard from 1807 to 1831. bartlett died at cambridge, mass., on the 3rd of december 1905.