Stone & Kimball Records, 1883-1971

Purchase, Herbert Stuart Stone, Jr., 1971.

The Stone & Kimball Records are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).

The Stone & Kimball Records are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.

Stone & Kimball Records, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

Margarete Gross, 2017.

Chicago book publishing company.

Herbert Stuart Stone and Hannibal Ingalls Kimball were two Harvard students, who while still in their junior year of college published a guidebook to Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. Kimball provided Stone with the typewriter (and acted as business manager), while Herbert Stone (along with his brother, Melville E. Stone, Jr. and artist, John T. McCutcheon) did the writing and the illustrations for the book. The guidebook made a healthy profit of $600.00 for the two young publishers who followed up their success with a bibliography entitled “First Editions of American Authors”, edited by Herbert Stone, and with an introduction by Eugene Field.

While struggling with the daily grind of class work and their new-found venture into publishing, Stone and Kimball began publishing the now legendary magazine, The Chap Book. Justified initially as a vehicle for advertising works to be published by Stone and Kimball, the magazine soon became known for its high-quality writing and for its art work—The Chap Book is credited with introducing the American public to the art work of Toulouse-Lautrec and Aubrey Beardsley, among others. With the assistance of Canadian poet, Bliss Carman (and later, Harrison Garfield Rhodes), Stone also introduced readers to then little-known writers such as Anatole France, Paul Verlaine, Henry James, and Joel Chandler Harrison, to name a few. In August of 1894, a few months after the launch of The Chap Book, the firm moved operations from Cambridge to Chicago, where the publishing firm of Stone and Kimball was established; twenty-one year old Herbert Stuart Stone already had a strong Chicago connection through his father, Melville Elijah Stone, founder and editor of The Chicago Daily News and later, general manager of the Associated Press. In 1900, Herbert Stone married Mary Grigsby McCormick which linked him by marriage to the influential family that owned the Chicago Tribune. The Stone and Kimball publishing firm set its sights on producing beautiful books of the highest caliber, while focusing on the best writers of the day. George Santayana made his literary debut through Stone and Kimball, as did a host of others. Not being content with publishing American writers only, they determined to secure the rights to publish the most popular writer in the world at the time—Robert Louis Stevenson. Thus “Ebb Tide” was introduced to the American reading public. The firm continued until 1897, when Kimball disolved the partnership in order to return to New York, at which point, the company became known as Herbert S. Stone & Co., with his brother Melville E. Stone, Jr. staying on as business manager. Always innovative, works by Richard LeGalliene and Gabriele D’Annunzio were among some of the newer authors to appear on book shelves, as well as Harold Frederic, with his “Theron Ware” and George Barr McCutcheon’s very popular “Graustark” and “Brewster’s Millions”, all of which made their way to Hollywood as silent films. George Bernard Shaw praised the firm for being “intelligent and enterprising”; in fact, Shaw’s “The Perfect Wagnerite” appeared in America 14 years before it was published in England. In addition, Herbert Stone attempted to publish and edit a daily literary publication called The Daily Tattler, which unfortunately, folded after only 18 months. Meanwhile, in New York, Hannibal Ingalls Kimball returned for a time to the publishing business again, with the Cheltenham Press. In addition, Kimball is credited with developing the Cheltenham typeface with co-developer, Bertram Goodhue. By 1906, the brothers Stone, decided that the book publishing business was no longer enjoyable (which had become more of a problem of distribution), and sold their booklist to Fox, Duffield & Co., in New York. Herbert, however, continued with his editorship of House Beautiful (1898-1913) and Melville (known as Ned) continued with playwriting and eventually became editor of the New York magazine, The Metropolitan. Both brothers died tragically; Herbert died in 1915 when the Lusitania was torpedoed, and Ned died of tuberculosis in 1918.

Little is known about Herbert Stuart Stone Jr. He was a 1924 graduate of Harvard University and he served in World War II in the Naval Reserve achieving the rank of Lieutenant Commander. In the 1940s, he was President of the Lincoln Paper Company in Chicago. In addition, he was very active in numerous clubs and societies in the Chicago area including the Caxton Club, the Duodecimos, and the Mark Twain Society and he was an avid collector of art nouveau posters, which he often lent for exhibitions.

The bulk of the collection includes material related to Herbert Stuart Stone’s career as a publisher, editor, writer, and artist as well as information about his brother, Melville Edwin Stone who was associated with Herbert as his business manager, but also known as a playwright, and essayist. Included too, are letters from their father, Melville Elijah Stone. Through Herbert Stuart Stone, Jr., the Newberry was able to acquire the papers of Stone and Kimball, as well as the papers Herbert S. Stone, & Co. Mr. Stone also provided information to Mr. Sidney Kramer, for his 1940 book “A History of Stone & Kimball and Herbert S. Stone & Co.” Mr. Stone was known as an avid collector of 19th century art posters, which included the work of Toulouse-Lautrec and Alphonse Mucha, among others. Much of his poster collection in included in the file.

The collection includes correspondence between family members, as well as correspondence between the publisher and his clients—writers that Herbert Stone, for the most part, introduced to the American public. Because of Mr. Stone’s many interests in the publishing world—including his own publishing companies, his work on the Chap Book, and later his time as editor of The House Beautiful—the collection is as varied as it is interesting.

Some items in the inventory are followed by the indication (S & K #). The numbers refer to the original checklist numbers provided by Herbert Stuart Stone Jr. There is a copy of the checklist available at the Newberry, Call Number: Wing fZP 883 .S877.

Papers are organized in the following series:

Series 1: Correspondence, 1883-1971 Boxes 1-4 Series 2: Works, 1892-1937 Boxes 5-11 Series 3: House Beautiful, 1902-1948 Box 12 Series 4: Miscellaneous, 1892-1971 Boxes 13-15 Series 5: Photographs, 1892-1935 Box 16 Series 6: Art Work, 1885-1964 Boxes 17-23, Rolls 1-4, Flat File Drawer 6, Artifacts Cage Series 7: Oversize, 1885-1969 Boxes 23-25 Series 8: Artifacts, undated, 1894-1906 Boxes 23 and 26

• Names
  • Ade, George, 1866-1944
  • Alma-Tadema, Lawrence, 1836-1912
  • Altgeld, John Peter, 1847-1902
  • Arthur, Chester Alan, 1829-1886
  • Bates, Katharine Lee, 1859-1929
  • Beardsley, Aubrey, 1872-1898
  • Beerbohm, Max, Sir, 1872-1956
  • Betts, Louis
  • Bradley, Will, 1868-1962
  • Bragdon, Claude Fayette, 1866-1946
  • Calhoun, Lucy Monroe, 1865-1950
  • Carman, Bliss, 1861-1929
  • Carpenter, John Alden, 1876-1951
  • Collin, Dwight Ripley, 1873-1932
  • Cram, Ralph Adams, 1863-1942
  • Crane, Stephen, 1871-1900
  • Dewey, George, 1837-1917
  • Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir, 1859-1930
  • Dunbar, Paul Laurence, 1872-1906
  • Dunne, Finley Peter, 1867-1936
  • Fairbanks, Douglas, 1883-1939
  • Field, Eugene, 1850-1895
  • Frederic, Harold, 1856-1898
  • Fuller, Henry Blake, 1857-1929
  • Garland, Hamlin, 1860-1940
  • Gibson, Charles Dana, 1867-1944
  • Guilbert, Yvette, 1865-1944
  • Hazenplug, Frank, 1874-1931
  • Hubbard, Elbert, 1856-1915
  • James, Henry, 1843-1916
  • Jefferson, Joseph, 1829-1905
  • Kimball, Ingalls, 1874-1933
  • Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936
  • Kramer, Sidney, 1911-1961
  • Lang, Andrew, 1844-1912
  • Le Gallienne, Richard, 1866-1947
  • Leyendecker, J. C., (Joseph Christian), 1874-1951
  • Low, Will Hicok, 1853-1932
  • Lowell, Orson, 1871-1956
  • MacLane, Mary, 1881-1929
  • MacMonnies, Frederick William, 1863-1937
  • Maeterlinck, Maurice, 1862-1949
  • McCutcheon, George Barr, 1866-1928
  • McCutcheon, John T. (John Tinney), 1870-1949
  • Norris, Frank, 1870-1902
  • O'Shaughnessy, Arthur William Edgar, 1844-1881
  • Robie, Virginia, 1878-
  • Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919
  • Seymour, Ralph Fletcher, 1876-1966
  • Shaw, Bernard, 1856-1950
  • Stone & Kimball.
  • Stone, Herbert Stuart, 1871-1915
  • Stone, Herbert Stuart, 1901-1990
  • Stone, Melville E., b. 1875
  • Stone, Melville Elijah, 1848-1929
• Subject
  • Authors and publishers -- United States -- History -- 20th century
  • Business
  • Chicago
  • Ephemera
  • Literature
  • Manuscripts, American -- Illinois -- Chicago
  • Printing History and Book Arts
  • Publishers and publishing -- Illinois -- Chicago -- 19th century
  • Publishers and publishing -- Illinois -- Chicago -- 20th century
• Geographic CoverageChicago (Illinois) -- History