Doubleday, Frank Nelson

Frank Nelson Doubleday, (born Jan. 8, 1862, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.—died Jan. 30, 1934, Coconut Grove, Fla.), American publisher and founder of the book-publishing firm Doubleday & Company, Inc.

At the age of 15 Doubleday quit school to work for Charles Scribner’s Sons, publishers, and he became manager of Scribner’s Magazine when it was begun in 1886. In 1897, with Samuel S. McClure, he founded the Doubleday & McClure Company, the publishing house that later (1900) became Doubleday, Page & Company with Walter Hines Page as a partner. Doubleday built Country Life Press at Garden City, N.Y., in 1910 and established a chain of more than 30 book shops. In 1927 Doubleday and Page absorbed the George H. Doran Company and was known as Doubleday, Doran & Company until 1946, when it became simply Doubleday & Company, Inc.

Inspired by the initials F.N.D., one of Doubleday’s authors, Rudyard Kipling, gave Doubleday the nickname by which he became widely known, “Effendi,” the Turkish word meaning “Master.” Other Doubleday authors included Joseph Conrad, O. Henry, Booth Tarkington, Edna Ferber, and Selma Lagerlöf. Doubleday wrote A Plain American in England (1910) under the pseudonym Charles T. Whitefield.