Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Hart, Abraham

HART, Abraham, publisher, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 15 Dec., 1810; d. in Long Branch, N. J., 22 July, 1885. He was of Dutch parentage. When a mere boy he was taken into the employ of the publishing firm of Carey, Lea and Carey. In 1829 the firm divided its business; a partnership was formed between Mr. Hart and Edward L. Carey, the junior member of the old firm, and the house of Carey and Hart became the best-known publishing house in the country. It was the first to collect the fugitive essays of Macaulay, Jeffrey, Mackintosh, Carlyle, and others and publish them in separate volumes. Mr. Carey died in 1845, and Mr. Hart continued the publishing business until 1854, when he retired with a handsome fortune. Mr. Hart was a member of the Jewish community, and took a chief part in its worthiest projects.