author
Albert Sidney Bolles
1846–1939
A prolific writer on American finance, banking, and commercial law, this late-19th- and early-20th-century author turned complex economic subjects into books meant for students, businesspeople, and general readers alike.
1 Audiobook
Putnam's Handy Law Book for the Layman
by Albert Sidney Bolles
About the author
Born in 1846 and active well into the early 20th century, Albert Sidney Bolles built a career around explaining how money, banking, law, and business worked in the United States. Catalog records and bibliographic listings connect him with a long run of practical and historical books, including The Financial History of the United States, Practical Banking, Money, Banking, and Finance, and The Business Man's Commercial Law Library.
His work also crossed into teaching and academic life. Library records describe him as a former Professor of Mercantile Law and Banking at the University of Pennsylvania and later a lecturer on commercial law and banking at Haverford College. That background helps explain the tone of his writing: informed, orderly, and aimed at readers who wanted useful knowledge rather than theory alone.
Bolles died in 1939. Today he is remembered mainly through his many public-domain works, which offer a window into how Americans once understood finance, industry, labor, and everyday legal questions.