Moses Polock

Moses Polock was a prominent publisher and perhaps the greatest bibliophile in nineteenth-century America. The fourth of twelve children to Hyman Poock and Rebecca Barnett Polock, Moses was raised in Philadelphia. Among his siblings were sisters Miriam Polock Wolf and Isabella Polock Rosenbach. His family were active members of Congregation Mikveh Israel.

After studying at the Franklin Institute, Polock began working at a bookstore and publisher, McCarty & Davis, at the age of fourteen. He would remain there for the next twenty years, and finally bought the business, renaming it for himself. He published numerous works of fiction and drama, including the first collected edition of the works of Charles Brockden Brown under the title The First American Novelist. However, it was a dealer in rare books that he became most widely known. Among the frequent visitors to his store were James Fenimore Cooper, Noah Webster and Herman Melville. Customers included James Lenox, the founder of the Lenox Library in New York City and John Carter Brown, whose library formed the basis of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. His passion for books and collecting would be carried on by his nephews, Philip and A.S.W. Rosenbach, among the great dealers in rare books and manuscripts of the following century.

William Brotherhead recalled of Polock: “He made little exertion as a businessman to sell his books, and because his prices are and were always fanciful. At any time after 10 o’clock in the morning you can ascend to his store; there you will find him bachelor-like all alone in his glory, breathing the atmosphere of his old books. He will meet you in the most genial manner, and will talk to you about his gems in the most intelligent spirit… He has a rare early knowledge of men in the book business for the last forty years; but being a very reticent and diffident man, I am afraid those of the city will lose a charming lot of history about book-sellers, publishers and books. He is still in his old place, ever ready to do business with you, but is seldom visited except some old book-worm want some very scarce book or pamphlet.”

Moses Polock

c. 1850–1870