William Henry Appleton

William Henry Appleton (January 27, 1814 – October 19, 1899) was an American publisher, eldest son and successor of Daniel Appleton.

Early life William Henry Appleton was born on January 27, 1814, at Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Career In 1838, Appleton he joined his father as a partner in the family publishing business, D. Appleton & Company, which he had begun clerking for in 1831 at the age of 16.

William Worthen Appleton (1845–1924), who married Anna Debois Sargent (1845–1908). in 1872. Mary Appleton (d. 1934), who died unmarried. Henry Cozzens Appleton (1863–1925), who married Dora Threlkeld (1847–1927).

Appleton was a prominent figure in publishing for a period of sixty years. He lived at Wave Hill (New York); the house was later turned into a botanical garden in the Riverdale section of The Bronx, New York. He was one of the earliest members of the Century Association, joining in 1847, a member of the Union Club of New York, the Riding Club, and the Aldine and Players' Clubs. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.

Descendants His grandson, through his son William, was William Henry Appleton (1866–1951), a prominent yachtsman who married Noel Johnston, granddaughter of John Taylor Johnston, former president of the Central Railroad of New Jersey and the founding president of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Legacy Appleton City, Missouri, was named after the publisher, in appreciation of his 1870 donation to the town's library.

In popular culture Appleton is a character in the time travel novel The Plot to Save Socrates by Paul Levinson. As depicted in the book, Appleton had an extensive secret life as a time-traveler, had visited Classical Greece and met in person some of the famous ancient Greek writers and philosophers whose works he published, and also several times visited the 21st century – but always found his own 19th century milieu to be the most congenial.