Peter Fenelon Collier (December 12, 1849 – April 23, 1909) was the founder of the publishing company P.F. Collier & Son,[1] and in 1888 founded Collier's Weekly.[1] P.F. Collier & Son Company published the encyclopedias Collier's Cyclopedia of Social and Commercial Information (1883, Editor Nugent Robinson), the New American Encyclopedia of Social and Commercial Information (1908, Editor James E. Homans) and the 10 volume Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921, 1926, 1928, Editor Francis J. Reynolds, Chairman William A. Neilson).
He was born in Myshall, County Carlow, Ireland on December 12, 1849 to Catherine Fenelon and Robert Collier. He emigrated to Dayton, Ohio in 1866 when he was seventeen years old. He attended St. Mary's Seminary in Cincinnati for four years. He then worked for Sadler and Company a publisher of schoolbooks. With $300 that he saved as a salesman, he bought the printing plates to Father Burke's Lectures. In a single year, his sales were $90,000. In July 1873 he married Catherine Dunne.
In 1874, he published a biography of Pius IX and later published Chandler's Encyclopedia and Chamber's Encyclopedia. He then began publishing Collier's Library, a series of popular novels.
He later formed his own publishing company printing books for the Roman Catholic market. He founded Collier's Once a Week in April 1888. It was advertised as a magazine of "fiction, fact, sensation, wit, humor, news". By 1892, Collier's Once a Week had a circulation of over 250,000, and was one of the largest selling magazines in the United States. In 1895, the name was changed to Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal.
Peter Collier died on April 23, 1909.[2]
His son, Robert Joseph Collier, took over as publisher of Collier's Weekly. When Norman Hapgood joined Harper's Weekly in 1912, Robert Collier became the new editor. Circulation continued to grow, and by 1917, circulation reached one million. Robert Collier (author) (1885–1950), his nephew, founded Robert Collier Publications.
| Preceded by N/A |
Editor of Collier's Weekly 1888-1903 |
Succeeded by Norman Hapgood |
