author
George Moore
1806–1876
A self-made English merchant who turned business success into practical generosity, he is remembered for building one of the country’s best-known wholesale drapery firms and for supporting education and rural libraries in Cumberland.
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About the author
Born in Mealsgate, Cumberland, on April 9, 1806, he left village schooling young and went into trade while still a teenager. He made his name in London as a lace merchant and later became a leading figure in the wholesale drapery business, building a large and successful firm.
Moore is best remembered not only for commercial success but for the way he used his fortune. Sources consistently describe him as a philanthropist, especially for work connected with education and reading in the countryside, and for helping people in his native Cumberland.
He died on November 21, 1876. Although he is not chiefly known today as a literary author, works associated with his name include Journal of a Voyage Across the Atlantic: With Notes on Canada and the United States, and Return to Great Britain, in 1844.