Joseph P. Knapp | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 14, 1864 |
| Died | January 30, 1951 (aged 86) New York City, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Columbia College of Columbia University |
| Occupation(s) | publisher and philanthropist |
| Known for | This Week Ducks Unlimited J. P. Knapp Foundation |
| Spouses | Sylvia Teresa Kepner
(m. 1886; div. 1903)Elizabeth Laing McIlwaine
(m. 1902; died 1922)Margaret Elizabeth Rutledge
(m. 1923) |
| Children | Claire Antoinette Knapp (1889–1959) Joseph Fairchild Knapp (1892–1952) |
| Parent(s) | Joseph Fairchild Knapp and Phoebe Knapp |
Joseph Palmer Knapp (May 14, 1864 – January 30, 1951) was an American publisher and philanthropist. He was Chairman of the Board and principal shareholder of the Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. Knapp has also been credited with the invention of the multi-color six-cylinder press.[1]
He was the son of Joseph Fairchild and Phoebe Palmer Knapp. His father was a past president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and his mother was a hymn writer, credited with over 500 hymns, most notably "Blessed Assurance" with Fanny Crosby.
He was educated at Columbia College, matriculating with the class of 1884, but left after a year to become a member of the board in his father's company.[2][3]
In 1892, Knapp founded the American Lithographic Co.,[4] which became a leading printer of Sunday magazines for newspapers. (The company later became Publication Corporation, which eventually owned a number of Knapp publishing properties.)[5]
Knapp published the Associated Sunday Magazine from 1903 to 1905.
In 1906, Knapp and partner George Hazen purchased the Crowell Publishing Company of Springfield, Ohio, incorporating it in New Jersey.[6] Crowell published the family magazines Farm & Fireside and Woman's Home Companion.
Knapp's Every Week, published between 1915 and 1918, reached a circulation of more than 550,000.[7][8]
In 1919, Knapp acquired P.F. Collier & Son, a New York-based publisher of books and magazines, including Collier's. He merged P.F. Collier & Son with the Crowell Publishing Company in 1939, and served as chairman of the merged firm, the Crowell-Collier Publishing Company, until 1946.[9]
Knapp was publisher of the New York Herald Tribune Sunday Magazine[10] in 1935 when he changed its name and began to syndicate it to other newspapers as the Sunday supplement This Week.[11] In the early 1950s, it accompanied 37 Sunday newspapers.[12] (After Knapp's death, at its peak in 1963, This Week was distributed with the Sunday editions of 42 newspapers for a total circulation of 14.6 million.)
Knapp owned a hunting lodge in North Carolina known as Mackay Island. This property is now national wildlife refuge.[13]