David G. Francis

With the venerable David G. Francis passes away one of the last of the publishers and booksellers of the time when the book-shop was—as it cannot be now—one of the chief meeting-places of authors and book-lovers, a centre of scholarly society, and a clearing-house for scholarly exchanges. Mr. Francis, trained in the house of his father,—of the old firm of Munroe & Francis of Boston,—entered business with his elder brother in this city nearly sixty years ago, and had been in his own well-known place in Clinton Hall, and afterwards in East 15th Street, nearly forty years, when he retired in 1895. As a publisher, his name was connected with the early poems of Mrs. Browning, with Bailey’s Festus, and with the works of a large number of American writers of prominence in their day. His acquaintance with these was of wide range and long standing. In his later occupation of dealer in rare books his trained judgment and extensive knowledge were highly prized. During the twenty years and more of his membership of The Century he made the Club almost his home, from which he will be sadly missed.

Edward Cary
1903 Century Association Yearbook