John W. Lovell was the son of one of Canada's best known printer/publishers.  Something of a child prodigy of printing, by 21 John W. was in charge of one of his father's branches on the American side of the border.

Immediately (1873) he ran foul of authorities in both nations when he tried to pay American workers with Canadian currency and bring in employees form Canada.  He also ignored copyrights, publishing American books for the Canadian market and Canadian books for the American market.

In 1876, he quit his father's firm, took American citizenship, and founded his own company, Lovell, Adam & Co.  His first partner was G. Mercer Adam from the Toronto firm of Adam, Steveson & Co. (founded by John Lovell's father to produce cheap books),.  When a second partner, Francis L. Wesson, came on board, the company's name was changed to Lovell, Adam, Wesson & Co..  This partnership was dissolved in 1877.

As John Lovell & Co. he pirated works of others, including, Charles Knight's ‘Popular History of England’,  Dickens, Thackeray, Milton, etc..

He issued several series: "Popular Twelvemos", "Student Histories", "Caxton Classics", "Lovell's Editions of the Poets", and "Lovell's Library".  The latter was his most successful series, started in 1882 in 10cent, 20 cent, and 30 cent editions.  Called ‘Good Literature for the Masses’, the series had over 1,500 titles by 1890.  Most of these were paper covers, but he also issued simultaneously cloth bindings for those who detested paper wrappers.

In a stroke of genius, he managed to qualify his paperbacks as 2nd class mailings, the same as newspapers.  He was soon mailing over 7,000,000 cheap books a year.  He earned the nickname, "Book-a-Day Lovell". (Not all his titles were pirated - when he paid royalties, he issued those titles as "Authorized Editions" !)

His list of series also continued to grow, to include "Rugby", "Universal", "Franklin", "Red Line", "Foreign Literature Library", "Occult and Illustrated Series", "Lovell's American Novelists Series".  He also published "Tid-Bits", a magazine.

He distributed books from New York via branches in Boston, Chicago and London.  The last was managed by Wolcott Balestir, who was as crooked as Lovell.  He stole (from MacMillan) “Robert Elsmere”, by Mrs. Humphrey Ward, which Lovell then published in America. When it became a million seller, Lovell sent $500 to Mrs. Ward.  Through similar pirating, Lovell actually introduced many British authors to American readers in these cheap editions.

Claiming to be a democratic reformer and someone who elevated the common man via his high quality literature in cheap editions, he began publishing "Lovell's Political and Scientific Series" to express his political beliefs. These influenced the growth of the American Labour Movement authors such as Jean Baptiste, Andre Godin, Albert Owen (founder of utopian communities), Henry George and Eleanor Marx Aveling.

He was the first to publish Madam Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's “Universal Brotherhood Theosophical Society”, which led to Lovell's Occult series.  (Lovell personally experimented with alternative life-styles, and founded a utopian community in Mexico with Japanese citizens.)

Lovell was also a promoter of Women's Suffrage rights and to promote this cause he established a subsidiary to publish books on women's issues, such as August Bebel's “Woman”,  Margaret Lee's “Divorce”,  and works by Lillie Devereaux Blake and Ursuala N Gestafeld.

Lovell came up with the idea to combine all his cheap reprint competition into a single conglomerate, the United States Book Co, which was incorporated in 1890.  Lovell purchased the plates for the cheap reprint rights of the works of the following companies: Hurst & Co.,  Worthington Co.,  W.L. Allison Alden Book Co.,  Pollard & Moss,  G.W. Dillingham Aldine Book Co.,  Estes & Lauriat,  DeWolfe,  Fiske & Co.,  J.B. Lyon,  Donohue,  Henneberry & Co., Belford, Clark & Co   and   J.B. Lippincott.   He then issued books form these plates in a variety of series:  Westminster, Columbus, Canterbury, Metropolitan, Leather Clad, Seaside, Oxford Edition of Twelvemos and Universal Libraries

A subsidiary of United States Book Co. was Lovell, Coryell & Co., founded in 1892.  It issued fancy-bound versions of the cheap books with leather, ribbons & gilt etc..  Eventually his partner in this venture, Vincent M. Coryell,  purchased the business and renamed it Coryell & Co.   Other subsidiaries of The United States Book Co. were Wayside Publishing Co.,  Seaside Publishing Co. and the National Book Co.  (all headed by John's brother, Edward Lovell).  Also Frank Lovell Co. (headed by brother Frank),  International Book Co.  (headed by John Hovenden who, like Coryell, purchased it and renamed it after himself),  Empire Publishing Co  (also headed by Frank),   Home Book Company  (headed by Frank and Charles Lovell),  and the  Prudential Book Co.,  famous for its advertisements in tea packages.

Lovell, Gestefeld & Co., the feminist arm of the business,  was kept separate from the United States Book Co.  and remained a subsidiary of Lovell & Co.   After Lovell retired, the company was renamed Gestefeld Library & Publishing Co.., and later still renamed again to the Metaphysical Publishing Co.

By now, Lovell's continual pirating of the works of others and his forceful methods of trying to corner the market in cheap books earned him the reputation as "The Most Hated Man in Publishing."

His bold attempt to control the cheap book market failed because four of the largest players refused to sell to him: Rand McNally, Laird & Lee, A.L. Burt, and Street & Smith.   He attempted three times (1895, 1897, and 1900) to take over these companies and failed each time.   Additionally, the scheme was simply too big.  Every time he added a new company, another would escape.  Each new re-organisation saw valued employees flee to more secure ground.

In 1891, the new International Copyright laws hurt his ability to pirate and steal.  Further hindered by the ‘Panic of 1893’, the scheme began to crumble.  Wall Street investors, in a secret meeting, booted Lovell out of the company.  John M. Forbes replaced him.  Manhattan Trust Co., which held the bank notes and mortgages, renamed the company American Publishers Corporation (sarcastically referred to as "Publishers' Corpse"). In its final days it was named Publishers Plate Renting Co.  
The end came in 1904 when its assets, including Coryell Publishing, were sold at auction.

Meanwhile, John Lovell had hatched another scheme to wealth.  He would corner the magazine market.  His most successful acquisition was Godey's Lady's Book.   However, Scribner's and Century flatly refused to him at any price, so he abandoned the scheme.

One last attempt came when he established the Auto Book Concern.

He died at age 80, in 1932.

With thanks to Hyde Park Book Store for biographical assistance

Lovell’s version
of the
1880 Chatterbox

… copied from …

Estes Lauriat’s original
version of the
1880 Chatterbox

The front cover credits the following publishers:

A.W. Lovering, Washington St, Boston
John W Lovell and John Williams – New York

1882 Chatterbox

This looks suspiciously like his 1880 version with the date over-printed ?