Frank C. Dodd

He was a book publisher all his life, and the lifetime was spent with Dodd, Mead, a firm his grandfather, Moses W. Dodd, had founded in 1839. Frank Dodd graduated from Yonkers High School and spent a year working for the legendary Fifth Avenue Bank. He then entered Yale and took his A.B. in 1897. After that, there was no question of what he would do. In July, 1897, he joined Dodd, Mead with a job in the shipping department, a first step in those days for young hopefuls in the publishing business. A year later he was made a junior salesman and a few years further on he was sales manager of the company. He sold Dodd, Mead books in every state, and practically every city in the United States. He had hung up the sort of record that marked him for greater responsibilities.

In 1916, he was elected a director and treasurer of the company, and for many years he directed its editorial and general publishing policy. During this period, in addition to signing American authors, he made frequent trips to England, the Continent, and Canada, arranging American rights for Dodd, Mead and establishing close business and personal relationships with many important authors. These included Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, G. K. Chesterton, Anatole France, Stephen Leacock, E. Barrington, Maurice Maeterlinck, H. V. Morton, W. J. Locke, Agatha Christie. Many of these authors are dead now, or no longer writing. A healthy exception is Agatha Christie, recently honored by her Queen as Dame Agatha. Dodd, Mead has published more than 80 of her suspense novels. Now past eighty herself, Dame Agatha shows no slackening of her criminal invention, or the freshness of her dialogue. The day he got her signature on a contract, Frank Dodd could hardly have realized what a lasting vein he had tapped. But then, he always had a second sense for knowing where there was gold.

He enriched Dodd, Mead’s coffers and influence by promoting mergers with a number of smaller publishing firms. He was also a founder and director of Blue Ribbon Books, one of the early entrants into the field of low-cost books. He initiated the first American Prize Novel competition, and several series of books which continue on the Dodd, Mead list, as well as reference works which have long since become library standards. He was vice-president of the company from 1926 to 1931, president from 1931 to 1942, and chairman of the board from 1942 to 1959.

Frank Dodd loved The Century, and was often at the Long Table at luncheon. He liked to drive a fast Cadillac, particularly on the long road to winter escape in Florida, where he belonged to a golf club. Golf was his only real diversion. Each Wednesday from spring to winter, he skipped the office and could be found on a golf course. Golfers’ scores are their own concern, and The Century knows nothing of the cards he turned in after the 18th hole. He became a Centurion in 1921 and when he died on January 4, 1968, five days before his ninety-third birthday, he had been a member forty-seven years.

Stewart Taft Beach
1972 Century Association Yearbook