Elbert Hubbard

Born in Illinois in 1856, Elbert Hubbard first found success in business before turning to writing and publishing. After leaving the Larkin Soap Company, he founded the Roycroft Press in East Aurora, New York, in the 1890s, inspired in part by the English Arts and Crafts movement.

From Roycroft, he helped create a thriving community of printers, artisans, and designers whose books and handcrafted goods became widely admired. His most famous work, A Message to Garcia, made him nationally known, and his essays and lectures built a reputation for plainspoken, quotable advice.

Hubbard died in 1915 when the Lusitania was sunk off the coast of Ireland. More than a century later, he remains closely associated with Roycroft and with an energetic, distinctly American version of the Arts and Crafts ideal.