George Ayres Leavitt

George Ayres Leavitt (May 13, 1822 – December 18, 1888) was the son of a Massachusetts bookbinder who founded several of New York's earliest publishing firms.

Shortly after his son George's birth, Jonathan Leavitt left Andover for New York City, where he launched into business with his brother-in-law Daniel Appleton, a former Boston dry goods merchant.

[2] Helping Jonathan Leavitt build his business was his right-hand man, George Palmer Putnam, who eventually left for other better-paying opportunities.

By 1842 George A. Leavitt, having graduated from Andover's Phillips Academy and worked for a time for the booksellers Robinson & Franklin, joined his father's publishing house.

On his father Jonathan's death a decade later in 1851, Leavitt took over the firm and operated for year as a sole proprietorship, when he took on as partner his Andover classmate John K. Allen.

Although heir to one of earliest New York publishing houses, Leavitt eventually made his name as a bookseller and auctioneer, largely due to financial reverses.

Leavitt had inherited a backstock of educational books from his father's firm, and he and his partner Allen continued to add to their stable of writers, which included Prof. John J. Owen, S.N.

In 1863, as the American Civil War raged, dragging many New York publishers into bankruptcy, George Leavitt became involved in a transaction that would change his business entirely.

But within a couple of years, the exigencies of the publishing industry, roiled by the Civil War, proved too demanding, and Leavitt sold his stock and retired from the bookselling and publishing industry entirely, instead concentrating on his auction house,[8] which was for many years the largest fine arts and book auction business in New York City.

[13] The funeral was held at the home at 802 Lexington Avenue that he shared with his wife Mary Catherine (Cooley) Leavitt,[14] whom he had married in 1848.

"No man could ever have had a better friend than George A. Leavitt", wrote the bible of the publishing industry, "and that was probably the chief reason the deceased did not succeed as he deserved.