Edwin Ginn

Edwin Ginn (1838 - 1914), American publisher and philanthropist.

In 1838, Ginn was born to a poor family who lived on a small farm near Orland, Maine. At age twenty-four he graduated from Tufts University. After graduation, Ginn had a career selling schoolbooks that became extremely lucrative. In 1868 he founded Ginn & Co., and this endeavor allowed him to gain societal influence as one of the leading textbook publishers in the country.

Edwin Ginn was one of the wealthiest men of his day. After his second marriage to a much younger woman in his late fifties, he directed his energies and finances to important social causes: the American peace movement was his primary concern. He was resolved to attempt to change world attitudes regarding the arming for war. He promoted diplomacy by appealing to world attitudes to use logic, reason, and common sense.

"A great factor in Ginn's life was Edward Everett Hale, a pastor of Boston's South Congregational Church, a champion of peace, and a noted orator." By this association with Hale, Ginn developed an interest in international arbitration. Ginn dedicated himself to the cause and the possibility of peace. In 1910, Ginn founded an International School of Peace in Boston whose purpose was to educate "the people of all nations to a full knowledge of the waste and destruction of war and of preparation for war, its evil effects on present social conditions and on the well-being of future generations and to promote international justice and the brotherhood of man..." The School was later converted into the World Peace Foundation.

Memorials

* Named "in memoriam", The Edwin Ginn Library is the main library at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Book

Robert I. Rotberg. (2007). "A Leadership for Peace: How Edwin Ginn Tried to Change the World. " Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 2007.

External links

* [http://www.library.tufts.edu/ginn/index.html The Edwin Ginn Library]