George Ayres Leavitt

Who was George Ayres Leavitt?

George Ayres Leavitt was the son of a Massachusetts bookbinder who founded several of New York's earliest publishing firms. George Leavitt subsequently founded his own publishing company, Leavitt & Allen, but it failed during a financial panic that swept the nation during the American Civil War. Leavitt later tried to reestablish himself as both publisher and fine arts auctioneers, founding one of the first upscale auction houses, and eventually retiring from the book industry entirely.

George A. Leavitt was born in 1822, in Haverhill, Massachusetts, the son of Jonathan Leavitt, who lived in Andover, Massachusetts, where the former bookbinder's apprentice operated an early publishing firm devoted to turning out religious works connected with the Andover Theological Seminary. 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.