![]() Printer, trained at Harvard’s preparatory school on Crooked Lane, knew Greek, Latin, English, and his native Algonquin. Loeb Associate professor of the Humanities.īrooks is writing a book about James Printer, the Nipmuc Indian typesetter, who starting in 1659 played a key role in printing the Eliot Indian Bible (1663), a rendering of the Old and New Testaments in Algonquin. In sum, “We are looking at the first flowering of American literature coming out of the Harvard press,” said Lisa Brooks, who is John L. The press, designed to print one sheet of moistened paper at a time, was the first piece of equipment in a publishing operation that was to print English America’s first book, its first periodical literature, and its first best-sellers, including Michael Wigglesworth’s fervent poem about the Last Judgment called “Day of Doom” (four editions, starting in 1662) and Mary Rowlandson’s 1662 captivity narrative. (Glover died during the trans-Atlantic crossing, and his wife carried on.) In the ship’s hold was his wooden printing press valued at 20 pounds, paper worth twice that much, and a quantity of lead alloy type.Ĭenturies later, Harvard historian Samuel Eliot Morison called the John of London “the publishing fraternity’s Mayflower.” That little press, made of pegged timber and iron, was destined to be the first in British North America, the first at Harvard, and the first printing press in the New World managed by a woman. On board was Puritan minister Joseph Glover with his wife Elizabeth and their five children. ![]() In the summer of 1638, the John of London set sail from Hull, England, bound for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. As Harvard celebrates its 375th anniversary, the Gazette is examining key moments and developments over the University’s broad and compelling history.
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