author
Wm. K. (William King) David
A practical-minded compiler and publisher from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he is best known for gathering household formulas, medical receipts, stage tricks, and trade know-how into lively reference books. His surviving works have the feel of a cabinet of curiosities in print: part handbook, part miscellany, and part window into everyday problem-solving of the era.
1 Audiobook
Secrets of Wise Men, Chemists and Great Physicians
by Wm. K. (William King) David
About the author
Wm. K. David, identified in library records as William King David, was an American author, editor, and publisher whose books focused on practical knowledge rather than literary self-display. The clearest surviving references connect him with Chicago for the 1889 edition of Secrets of Wise Men, Chemists and Great Physicians and with Philadelphia for a 1902 edition of the same work and for The Short-Rule Arithmetic and Accountant’s Referee.
His best-known book, Secrets of Wise Men, Chemists and Great Physicians, is a wide-ranging compilation of recipes, formulas, household advice, medical preparations, inventions, and stage illusions. The book presents itself as a collection drawn from many sources and aimed at readers who wanted useful information they could apply in daily life, business, or entertainment.
Very little biographical detail about David himself is easy to confirm from major reference sources, which makes him a somewhat elusive figure today. What does stand out is the kind of work he left behind: energetic, practical, and deeply rooted in the self-help, how-to publishing culture of his time.