author
Joseph Benson Gilder
1858–1936
Best known as a literary editor and man of letters, he helped shape American reading culture through magazines, reviews, and essays in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
1 Audiobook
Trilbyana: The Rise and Progress of a Popular Novel
by Joseph Benson Gilder, Jeannette L. (Jeannette Leonard) Gilder
About the author
Born in Flushing, New York, in 1858, Joseph Benson Gilder became an American editor, author, and journalist. He studied for a time at the United States Naval Academy, then moved into newspaper and magazine work in Newark and New York.
He was a founder and co-editor of The Critic, an influential literary periodical, and later edited Putnam’s Magazine and the New York Times Book Review. Archive records also describe him as an author and banker, showing a career that ranged beyond publishing alone.
Gilder came from a notably literary family: he was the brother of Richard Watson Gilder and Jeannette Leonard Gilder. He died in 1936, leaving behind a career closely tied to American literary journalism and book culture.