Elbert Hubbard

Born in Illinois in 1856, Elbert Hubbard first found success in business before reinventing himself as a writer, lecturer, and publisher. After leaving the Larkin Soap Company, he founded Roycroft Press in East Aurora, New York, and soon built Roycroft into a well-known community of artisans, printers, and craftspeople inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement.

Hubbard wrote constantly and for a wide audience, producing essays, short books, and magazines filled with wit, aphorisms, and encouragement. He is especially associated with A Message to Garcia, a brief essay that became one of the most widely circulated pieces of inspirational writing of its era.

His life ended dramatically in 1915, when he and his wife, Alice Moore Hubbard, died in the sinking of the Lusitania. Even so, his name remains closely tied to Roycroft and to a distinctly American blend of craftsmanship, self-help, and literary showmanship.