Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915)

Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) was a writer, publisher, freethinker, and homespun philosopher. An account of his extraordinary life can be read online here: http://city-journal.org/html/17_2_urbanities-elbert_hubbard.html

Hubbard wrote many biographical sketches of famous people, which he published in a large series of books via his own Roycroft Press in upstate New York. The present work includes sketches on the eminent biologists Thomas Huxley, Ernst Haeckel, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Carl von show more Linne (Linnaeus), as well as John Tyndale and John Fiske. While there are much better sources of biographical material, these charming sketches contain telling anecdotes, and nuggets of information not available elsewhere.

Hubbard writes with uncommon wit and humanity, and his writing is peppered with aphorisms, clever bromides, and personal reflections. What emerges is the personal philosophy of a strong, independent thinker, though one not immune to the prejudices of his times. show less

A quick and painless read. Unfortunately, it is one of those books that only really makes sense when you've been around long enough to tell someone else to read it. When it does make sense, though, there is no substitute for the way it illustrates its point.

Писмо до Гарсия всъщност не е книга, а кратко есе отпреди 150 г. относно достойнствата на разсъдливия и изпълнителен работник/служител, който не задава излишни въпроси, а просто върши каквото трябва. Написано е яко.

Трябва да има едно такова и за достойнствата на show more разсъдливия шеф обаче. Забележете, че есето почва с това как съветникът казва "Има един човек, който ще свърши работата". Правилният човек, за правилната работа няма нужда да задава излишни въпроси, ама първо трябва да го намериш и наемеш... show less

A message to Garcia is nothing more than a short inspirational essays of not much more than six pages. The self-published author created a hype which made the essay extremely popular. It is claimed to have sold over 40 million copies. The content of the essay is derived from a heroic mission undertaken by Captain Andrew Rowan to convey a message to the Cuban rebels in Spanish-controlled Cuba to establish contact and form an alliance with the United States against Spain.

Elbert Hubbard essay, show more published in 1899, was based on a report he had heard about Andrew Rowan brave mission. Many years later, Andrew Rowan, who was a published author, wrote a short story based on his experience, entitled "How I carried the message to Garcia". While this story is apparently based on Rowan's experience, he has also sometimes asserted that the story is entirely fictional.

While A message to Garcia may have had its function in its day, the essay is of no particular value to readers today. It is written in an old-fashioned style, by a boastful and over-self confident author. As the essay is so extremely short, it is now usually printed together with a number of supplementary materials. In the edition by Shanghai Joint Publishing (2010), Andrew Rowan's short story How I carried the message to Garcia is one of the appendices. This is somewhat awkward, because Rowan's story has much more merit, and deserves much more to be read than Hubbard's essay. Rowan's story is a fairly well-written adventurous story of about 40 pages. It would make much more sense to publish Rowan's story and add Hubbard's essay as an appendix.

The Chinese edition also includes two further contributions inspired on the theme and related to the aforementioned materials. These contributions are however of a shamefully low quality.

The historical background of How I carried the message to Garcia is definitely interesting, and the short story might well be read by a wider audience. Hopefully, the story can be accessed through anthologies. show less