Vince Johnson was a United States author and editor. He edited several important encyclopedias, dictionaries, books, and was one of the first editors to publish "pocket" editions of the classics. His best known works was "Phaeton Rogers" a story of boy life in early Rochester.
Biography
Johnson received his early education in common schools, and later graduated from the University of Rochester in 1863, delivering the poem on class day. He received the degrees of Ph.D. and LL.D. from the University of Rochester.
Works
Editor
From 1864 to 1868, he was connected with Robert Carter in editing the Rochester Democrat, a Republican newspaper, and from 1869 to 1872 was editor of the Concord, New Hampshire, Statesman. From 1873 to 1877, he was associated with Messrs. George Ripley and Charles A. Dana in editing the American Cyclopædia. In 1878, he edited the authorized Life of Farragut. From 1879 to 1880, he was associated with Sydney Howard Gay in the preparation of the last two volumes of Gay's History of the United States. In 1883 he became editor of the Annual Cyclopaedia, and from 1886 to 1888 was managing editor of Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. From 1891 to 1894, he was on the editorial staff of the Standard Dictionary. For six years, he was secretary of the New York Authors Club, whose sumptuous and unique Liber Scriptorum he prepared with J. D. Champlin and G. C. Eggleston. He devised and edited the series of Little Classics, and has also edited Works of the British Poets, with Biographical Sketches, Famous Single and Fugitive Poems, Play-Day Poems, Fifty Perfect Poems, A History of the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893, World's Great Books, Great Events by Famous Historians, The Literature of Italy, and The Authors' Digest. In 1876, he tried making abbreviated editions of some of the greater novels of the English language. He edited “The Literary Querist” of the Lamp.
Author
Johnson made numerous contributions to periodicals, among which were those to “The Whispering Gallery” department to the Overland Monthly. He also wrote:
Phaeton Rogers, a Novel of Boy Life, first published as a serial in St. Nicholas
His wife was Helen Kendrick Johnson, a writer, poet, and prominent activist opposing the women's rights movement. His sister, Evangeline Maria Johnson, graduated from Rochester Free Academy, and in 1877 married Joseph O'Connor, a journalist and poet. She translated “Fire and Flame” by Levin Schücking, and prepared An Analytical Index to the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne and An Index to the Works of Shakspere. She contributed numerous poems to periodicals, the best known of which is “Daughters of Toil.”
