Edwin S. Grosvenor (born c. 1952) is an American publisher, writer, and photographer. He was the president and editor-in-chief of American Heritage. He has published nine books and is best known for writing on his great-grandfather, Alexander Graham Bell. Early in his career, Grosvenor worked as a freelance photographer for National Geographic.
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Early life
Grosvenor was born c. 1952. His father was Melville Bell Grosvenor, president of the National Geographic Society and editor of National Geographic magazine from 1957 to 1967. His great-grandfather was Alexander Graham Bell. His family established National Geographic.
Grosvenor developed an interest in photography at an early age. When he was eleven years old, a photograph he took at the Seattle World's Fair was published in the September, 1962 issue of National Geographic.
He received a B.A. degree from Yale University where he was a member of the Wolf's Head Society. He received an M.S. in journalism and MBA from Columbia University.
Career
Photography
Grosvenor subsequently worked as a freelance photographer for National Geographic, completing 23 assignments for the magazine and its book division in such countries as Belize, France, Iceland, Spain, Tonga, and Turkey. On several assignments, he was the photographer for articles written by his father on sailing.
Publishing
In 1979, Grosvenor launched the fine arts magazine Portfolio. "Since no magazine was going to hire a 27-year-old to be editor in chief, the only solution was to start my own," he told a reporter for the Palm Beach Post. The magazine was published by Grosvenor Publications, Inc., a company founded by Grosvenor and his father. In 1983, Portfolio was a Finalist for a National Magazine Award in the General Excellence category.
In 1992, Grosvenor founded the literary magazine, Current Books. Although Current Books" was published for only three years, it claimed to be "the most widely distributed book publication in bookstores" at the time, with copies for sale in 3,840 stores. The magazine was widely regarded in the literary community and, in 1995, Grosvenor was asked to serve on the NEA's literary publishing panel. Its members elected him as the chairman of the panel.
In 1996, Grosvenor founded KnowledgeMax, an online bookseller and e-learning company, which merged with Sideware Systems in 2000. The resulting company, called KnowledgeMax, Inc., was publicly traded until 2003.
In 2007, Grosvenor led a group of investors who purchased American Heritage from Forbes. Grosvenor said, “When I read in The New York Times that American Heritage had folded, I said, 'We just can’t let this happen,’ " Grosvenor told an interview in 2009. "I contacted the Forbes family and said, 'This is like intellectual preservation. It’s important to save battlefields and historic homes, but this is the magazine that writes about the battlefields and the historic homes.’ And luckily the Forbes family agreed with me, and we formed a new company to save it.” Grosvernor was the president and editor-of-chief of American Heritage. Although American Heritage suspended print publication in 2012, Grosvenor led a group of volunteers that relaunched a digital version of the magazine in June 2017.
In 2012 and 2013, Grosvenor led a team developing Fourscore, an educational website offering thousands of essays and documents for teaching American history and government.
Writing
Grosvenor is the author, with Morgan Wesson, of Alexander Graham Bell: The Life and Times of the Man Who Invented the Telephone (Harry N Abrams, 1997). He also wrote Try it!: the Alexander Graham Bell Science Activity Kit, published by the National Geographic Society in 1992. He has also edited a number of anthologies from American Heritage and Horizon magazines.
Personal life
Grosvenor is a member of the Organization of American Historians, the National Book Critics Circle, and the American Antiquarian Society. He is the historian of the Literary Society of Washington. Grosvenor received the President's Award from Historic Deerfield in 2012.
Selected bibliography
Books
Try It!: The Alexander Graham Bell Science Activity Kit and Experiment Book. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1992.
Alexander Graham Bell: The Life and Times of the Man Who Invented the Telephone. with Morgan Wesson. New York: Abrams Books, 1997. ISBN 978-0810940055.
299 Things You Should Know about American History. with John A. Garraty. New York: Abrams Books, 2009. ISBN 978-0810940055.
Articles
Following are some of the magazine articles Grosvenor wrote.
"Did Alexander Graham Bell Steal the Telephone Patent?", American Heritage, vol. 58, no. 4 (Spring/Summer 2008).
"The Pluck Heard 'Round the World", American Heritage, vol. 59, no. 4 (Winter 2010).
"The Naked Truth of Battle", American Heritage, vol. 60, no. 4 (Winter 2011).
"The Fountain of Youth 500 Years Later", American Heritage, vol. 62, no. 1 (Spring 2012).
"1940 Census Reveals the State of America 72 Years Ago", American Heritage, vol. 62, no. 1 (Spring 2012).
"Baltimore's 'Sailabration' Honors the War of 1812), American Heritage, vol. 62, no. 2 (Summer 2012).
"Stop the War on History", American Heritage, vol. 62, no. 1 (Summer 2017).
"Standing Bear Goes to Court", American Heritage, vol. 62, no. 1 (Summer 2017).
"Shocked by Sputnik Sixty Years Ago", American Heritage, vol. 62, no. 5 (Fall 2017).
"Holding Down the Fort", American Heritage, vol. 62, no. 5 (Fall 2017).
"Tears for Marjory Stoneman Douglas", American Heritage, vol. 63, no. 1 (Spring 2018).
""Secret Race to the Pole", American Heritage, vol. 63, no. 1 (Spring 2018).
Edited
The Best of American Heritage: The Civil War. New York: American Heritage/New Word City, 2015. ISBN 9781612308562.
The Best of American Heritage: Lincoln. New York: American Heritage/New Word City, 2015. ISBN 9781612308708.
History's Great Showdowns. New York: New Word City, 2016. ISBN 9781612309422.
The Best of American Heritage: Hamilton. New York: American Heritage/New Word City, 2017. ISBN 9781640190214.
The Best of American Heritage: New York. New York: American Heritage/New Word City, 2017. ISBN 9781640190771.
The Best of American Heritage: Vietnam War. New York: American Heritage/New Word City, 2017. ISBN 9781640190948.
The Best of American Heritage: World War I. New York: American Heritage/New Word City, 2017. ISBN 9781640190931.
The Men of the Revolution. New York: American Heritage/New Word City, 2017. ISBN 9781640191075.
The Best of American Heritage: Churchill. New York: American Heritage/New Word City, 2018. ISBN 9781640191815.
The Best of American Heritage: The Old West. New York: American Heritage/New Word City, 2018. ISBN 9781640193512.
The Best of American Heritage: Roosevelt. New York: American Heritage/New Word City, 2018. ISBN 9781640191686.
The Middle Ages. New York: Horizen/New Word Press, 2018. ISBN 9781640192201.