Bertrand hubbard biography of albert

1. Biography of Elbert Green Hubbard
2. The Roycroft Community
3. Personal Life
4. Tragic Death

Biography of Elbert Green Hubbard

Elbert Green Hubbard was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher. He was a prominent figure in the Arts and Crafts movement, but gained the most recognition for his essay, "A Message to Garcia." Hubbard was born on June 19, 1856, in Bloomington, Illinois, to Silas Hubbard and Juliana Frances Read. He grew up in Hudson, Illinois, and began his business career by selling products for the Larkin Soap Company in his hometown. This eventually led him to Buffalo, New York, where the company was headquartered and where Hubbard proposed several innovations.

The Roycroft Community

However, Hubbard's most famous works were created after he founded Roycroft, a community for followers of the Arts and Crafts movement, in East Aurora, New York, in 1895. The community grew out of his own publishing company, Roycroft Press, which was inspired by William Morris's Kelmscott Press, where all book operations were done by hand, mimicking the methods used in the medieval period. It is worth noting that while contemporary collectors and printing historians refer to it as Roycroft Press, within the community it was known as "The Roycrofters" and "The Roycroft Shops." Hubbard edited and published two magazines, "The Philistine" and "The Fra." "The Philistine" had a rough brown wrapping paper cover and was filled with satire. Roycroft Press produced beautiful, albeit sometimes unconventional, books printed on handmade paper. Additionally, Hubbard managed a fine bindery, furniture workshop, leatherworking shops, and copper craft production. The community became a major supplier of Mission-style furniture, a popular American style at the end of the 19th century, reminiscent of the antique Spanish furniture found in California missions. The Roycroft workshops became a gathering place and convention center for radicals, freethinkers, reformers, and suffragettes. Hubbard became a popular lecturer, and his homespun philosophy evolved from the free socialism inspired by William Morris to a passionate defense of free enterprise and American technology. He was often ridiculed in the press for allegedly selling out to the capitalism he had previously criticized. He was heavily criticized for his statement that prison is a socialist paradise where equality reigns, needs are satisfied, and competition is eliminated.

Personal Life

In 1881, Hubbard married Bertha Crawford Hubbard, who was then a saleswoman for the Larkin Soap Company. They had four children together, and Bertha became one of the founders of Roycroft. However, the marriage ended in divorce when Bertha caught Hubbard having an affair with Alice Moore, a local teacher. After the divorce, Hubbard removed Bertha from the business and replaced her with Alice, despite the respect and influence Bertha had within the community. After the deaths of Elbert Hubbard and Alice, their children from previous marriages managed Roycroft and its enterprises for many years. In 1904, Hubbard married Alice Moore Hubbard, a well-known feminist and writer who graduated from the Emerson College of Oratory in Boston, associated with the New Thought movement. They had a daughter named Miriam Elberta Hubbard.

Tragic Death

On May 1, 1915, just over three years after the Titanic disaster, Elbert Hubbard and Alice Hubbard boarded the Lusitania in New York. On May 7, the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sank off the coast of Ireland. Elbert and Alice Hubbard were among the 1,198 passengers who did not survive the sinking. Their bodies were never found. Ernest C. Cowper, their acquaintance who survived the tragedy, wrote to Hubbard's son that his father and stepmother, calmly holding hands as they always did, went on deck after the torpedo hit the ship, seemingly unsure of what to do. Cowper helped children into lifeboats and prepared to jump himself, but he witnessed the Hubbards simply turn around, enter one of the cabins, and close the door behind them. The idea was apparently that they preferred to die together rather than risk being separated in the water. It is worth noting that after the Titanic disaster, Hubbard greatly admired the actions of Ida Straus, who refused to leave her husband and board a lifeboat, choosing to share his tragic fate.