George Livermore | |
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Born |
George Livermore July 10, 1809 Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
Died | August 30, 1865 | (aged 56)
Resting place | Massachusetts, USA |
Residence | Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
Nationality | American |
Known for | collecting books |
Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Cunningham |
Children | 3 sons |
Parent(s) |
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George Livermore (July 10, 1809 – August 30, 1865) was an American memoirist, bibliographer, and historian, known chiefly as a book collector, who had many valuable and rare Bibles.
George Livermore was born July 10, 1809, at Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. His parents were Deacon Nathaniel Livermore and Elizabeth (Gleason) Livermore. His English ancestor, John Livermore, who emigrated from Ipswich, England in 1634 to the United States in 1634, settled in Watertown, Massachusetts, and was believed to be the progenitor for the Livermore family members in the United States.
Young George Livermore attended both public and private elementary schools at Cambridgeport. He pursued college-prep courses in addition to the normal elementary school courses. One of his private school classmates was the poet Oliver Wendell Holmes. Others at his school included Richard H. Dana and Margaret Fuller. Livermore began to purchase books from Boston sales in his spare time.
For reasons of health, in 1823, at the age of fourteen, Livermore decided to go directly into the workplace rather than attending college. He left school and went to work with his older brothers, Isaac and Marshall. They were merchants at Cambridgeport, where they ran a store. The only additional schooling Livermore had was in 1827-28, when he was 18 years old. He took some courses in English and Latin at Deerfield Academy.
In 1829 Livermore went to Waltham, Massachusetts, some eight miles away, and became a dry-goods clerk and salesman in a store for a year. He returned to Cambridge in 1830 and went to work in his father's shop making fancy soaps. In the later part of 1830, the owner of the dry-goods store asked Livermore to return to his store in Waltham, offering higher pay.
Livermore accepted the offer and returned to Waltham. In the spring of 1831, the owner of the dry-goods store offered Livermore a two-year lease to operate the business on his own. With encouragement from his friends, he took the opportunity to operate his own business and started officially in April 1831. Livermore ran the business with profit for the two years and returned the business to the original owner as per the lease agreement.