Edward Bok was born of Dutch parentage in The Netherlands in 1863. His father was well-to-do but lost his fortune and the family was almost destitute. Finally, when Edward was seven years of age, his father decided to bring the family to America.

In the Netherlands the family lived in a beautiful home, staffed with servants. Many famous persons from different countries came to visit the Bok home. In America the family settled in a poor neighborhood in Brooklyn. Life was entirely different from what the family had been accustomed to before.

Mr. Bok was a well-educated and capable man, but he had difficulty finding employment in America. Mrs. Bok had always had servants to work for her and was totally unprepared to assume the household duties suddenly thrust upon her. For a time the family faced one disappointment after another.

Fortunately Edward and his older brother William found opportunities to help the family. They gathered wood and coal, delivered papers, collected junk, washed windows, sold water and baked goods, and found many other ways to earn money. Both boys were filled with boundless energy and initiative.

Edward possessed a great curiosity about the world which helped him to learn constantly by doing. While he was still a boy, he began to collect autographs of famous persons. He sought to meet famous persons who came to the city, obtained their autographs, and made many of them close personal friends.

When Edward was thirteen, he became an office boy and stenographer for the Western Union Company. When he was nineteen, he began to work for a publishing company, and at twenty-one he became editor of The Brooklyn Magazine. Later he founded the Bok Syndicate Press to supply news items to newspapers.

In 1889 when Bok was only twenty-six, he became editor of The Ladies' Home Journal. Under his guidance the magazine became one of the most widely read magazines in America. As editor, he promoted many movements for the welfare of society, including the betterment of homes. After he retired in 1919, he wrote a number of important books.

The author of this book, Elisabeth P. Myers, has written many popular books for children. In writing this book, she has captured in words the eager, energetic, inquisitive personality for which Bok was noted. She has told a captivating story about this immigrant boy who became a famous American.

From the dust jacket