20 Facts About Edward Bok

Edward Bok was editor of the Ladies' Home Journal for 30 years.

Edward Bok distributed popular homebuilding plans and created Bok Tower Gardens in central Florida.

In 1882, Edward Bok began work with Henry Holt and Company as a stenographer while taking classes in the evenings.

From 1884 until 1887, Edward Bok was the editor of The Brooklyn Magazine, and in 1886, he founded the Edward Bok Syndicate Press, "the country's third syndicate with 137 newspapers subscribed".

In 1896, Bok married Mary L Curtis, the daughter of Louisa and Cyrus Curtis.

Edward Bok shared her family's interest in music, cultural activities, and philanthropy and was very active in social circles.

Mencken observed that Edward Bok showed an irrepressible interest in things artistic:.

Edward Bok flung himself headlong into his campaigns, and practically every one of them succeeded.

Edward Bok has been, aesthetically, probably the most useful citizen that ever breathed its muggy air.

Edward Bok established a number of awards including the $100,000 American Peace Award in 1923, given for the "best practicable plan for US cooperation in world peace".

Edward Bok Tower is sometimes called a sanctuary and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark.

Edward Bok is used as an example in Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Edward Bok died after a heart attack on January 9,1930, in Lake Wales, within sight of his beloved Singing Tower and was buried at the tower's base.

Edward Bok advocated using the term living room for the room then commonly called a parlo[u]r or drawing room, and is sometimes erroneously credited with inventing the term.

Edward Bok believed it was foolish to create an expensively furnished room that was rarely used, and promoted the alternative name to encourage families to use the room in their daily lives.

At the Ladies' Home Journal, Edward Bok authored more than 20 articles opposed to women's suffrage, which he believed threatened his "vision of the woman at home, living the simple life".

Edward Bok opposed the concept of women working outside the home, some aspects of the woman's clubs, and education for women.

Edward Bok wrote that feminism would lead women to divorce, ill health, and even death.

Edward Bok solicited articles against women's rights from former presidents Grover Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt.

Edward Bok did not proceed with that and reached a compromise with the General Federation of Women's Clubs.