The newspaper paragraphers were now having a delightful time with Edward Bok and his woman’s magazine, and he was having a delightful time with them. The editor’s publicity sense made him realize how valuable for his purposes was all this free advertising. The paragraphers believed, in their hearts, that they were annoying the young editor; they tried to draw his fire through their articles. But he kept quiet, put his tongue in his cheek, and determined to give them some choice morsels for their wit. He conceived the idea of making familiar to the public the women who were back of the success ..read more

Eugene Field was one of Edward Bok’s close friends and also his despair, as was likely to be the case with those who were intimate with the Western poet. One day Field said to Bok: “I am going to make you the most widely paragraphed man in America.” The editor passed the remark over, but he was to recall it often as his friend set out to make his boast good. The fact that Bok was unmarried and the editor of a woman’s magazine appealed strongly to Field’s sense of humor. He knew the editor’s opposition to patent medicines, and so he decided to join the two facts in a paragraph, put on the wire ..read more

Edward Bok’s lines were now to follow those of advertising for several years. He was responsible for securing the advertisements for The Book Buyer and The Presbyterian Review. While the former was, frankly, a house-organ, its editorial contents had so broadened as to make the periodical of general interest to book-lovers, and with the subscribers constituting the valuable list of Scribner book-buyers, other publishers were eager to fish in the Scribner pond. With The Presbyterian Review, the condition was different. A magazine issued quarterly naturally lacks the continuity desired by the ad ..read more

One evening some literary men were dining together previous to going to a private house where a number of authors were to give readings from their books. At the table the talk turned on the carelessness with which the public reads books. Richard Harding Davis, one of the party, contended that the public read more carefully than the others believed. It was just at the time when Du Maurier’s Trilby was in every one’s hands. “Don’t you believe it,” said one of the diners. “I’ll warrant you could take a portion of some well-known story tonight and palm it off on most of your listeners as new stuf ..read more

The personnel of the Scribner house was very youthful from the members of the firm clear down the line. It was veritably a house of young men. The story is told of a Boston publisher, sedate and fairly elderly, who came to the Scribner house to transact business with several of its departments. One of his errands concerning itself with advertising, he was introduced to Bok, who was then twenty-four. Looking the youth over, he transacted his business as well as he felt it could be transacted with a manager of such tender years, and then sought the head of the educational department: this broug ..read more

The personnel of the Scribner house was very youthful from the members of the firm clear down the line. It was veritably a house of young men. The story is told of a Boston publisher, sedate and fairly elderly, who came to the Scribner house to transact business with several of its departments. One of his errands concerning itself with advertising, he was introduced to Bok, who was then twenty-four. Looking the youth over, he transacted his business as well as he felt it could be transacted with a manager of such tender years, and then sought the head of the educational department: this broug ..read more

Each May, thousands of seeds are collected from the plants in the National Collection beds. Although a handful of seeds are occasionally produced each year from one wild population, the National Collection is effectively the only place in the world where seeds are reliably produced. The annual seed harvest from the National Collection can be large, ranging from ~4,000 seeds to as much as ~16,000 seeds. In 2022, a total of 4,893 seeds were produced from the National Collection plants. During collection, seeds were kept separate by maternal parent, and spread onto screening in newly constructed ..read more

Mr. Beecher’s weekly newspaper “syndicate” letter was not only successful in itself, it made liberal money for the writer and for its two young publishers, but it served to introduce Edward Bok’s proposed agency to the newspapers under the most favorable conditions. With one stroke, the attention of newspaper editors had been attracted, and Edward concluded to take quick advantage of it. He organized the Bok Syndicate Press, with offices in New York, and his brother, William J. Bok, as partner and active manager. Edward’s days were occupied, of course, with his duties in the Holt publishing ho ..read more

As a letter-writer, Henry Ward Beecher was a constant wonder. He never wrote a commonplace letter. There was always himself in it — in whatever mood it found him. It was not customary for him to see all his mail. As a rule Mrs. Beecher opened it, and attended to most of it. One evening Edward was helping Mrs. Beecher handle an unusually large number of letters. He was reading one when Mr. Beecher happened to come in and read what otherwise he would not have seen: “Reverend Henry Ward Beecher. “Dear Sir: “I journeyed over from my New York hotel yesterday morning to hear you preach, expectin ..read more

Throughout 2022 and with support from a grant from Duke Energy and supplemental funding from the Florida Forest Service, the Rare Plant Conservation Program (RPCP) has worked to restore sandhill habitat adjacent to Bok Tower Gardens to support populations of the endangered Clasping warea (Warea amplexifolia), Florida Ziziphus (Ziziphus celata), and numerous other native species and pollinators. This work has involved reducing the overgrowth of hardwood trees and shrubs, removing and treating invasive species, and maintaining the power line easement areas. In August, a newly improved area was ..read more