Rossiter Johnson (27 January 1840 – 3 October 1931) was an American author and editor. He edited several encyclopedias, dictionaries, and books, and was one of the first editors to publish "pocket" editions of the classics. He was also an author of histories, novels, and poetry. Among his best known works was Phaeton Rogers, a novel of boyhood in Rochester, New York, where Johnson was born.
Biography
Johnson received his early education in common schools, and graduated from the University of Rochester in 1863, delivering the poem on class day. He later received the honorary degrees of Ph.D. and LL.D. from the University of Rochester.
Family
His wife was Helen Kendrick Johnson, a writer, poet, and prominent activist who opposed 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” (German: Feuer und Flamme) by Levin Schücking (New York, 1876), and prepared An Analytical Index to the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne (Boston, 1882) and An Index to the Works of Shakspere (New York and London, 1887). She contributed numerous poems to periodicals, the best known of which is “Daughters of Toil.”
