William Evarts Benjamin (1859-1940)
Publisher & Collector of Rare Books, Prints & Autographs; of Greenwich, Connecticut
He and his brother, Walter Romeyn Benjamin, opened the first firm in America limited to the handling of old manuscripts. When Mark Twain went bankrupt in 1900, investing in the Paige Compositor, Benjamin and his immensely wealthy father-in-law, H.H. Rogers, assisted him financially by taking control of his accounts and real estate. Mrs. Benjamin died in 1924, leaving her husband $14.5-million. He gave the New-York Historical Society the letters patent signed by King Charles II in 1674 that authorised Edmund Andros to take New York - then New Netherland - for the British Crown. He also gave the Library of Congress valuable papers concerning George Washington and Mount Vernon. He lived at 2 East 87th Street (pictured), New York City, which he purchased from Lewis Cass Ledyard, and at the "Lake House" in Southampton, L.I., before retiring to Greenwich, Connecticut. He and his wife had two children.
