George Rex Graham

(Born: January 18, 1813 - Died: July 13, 1894)

American publisher and editor. He is best remembered today for Graham’s Magazine. He was admitted to the bar in 1839, but quickly abandoned the law as his interests in publishing came to dominate his time. He became editor of Atkinson’s Casket beginning with the issue of January 12, 1839. (Later in the same year, he bought out Atkinson.) He married Elizabeth P. Fry on April 23, 1839. She died in July 1871. (They had no children, although they had helped to raise a nephew on his wife’s side in the 1840s.) In his later years, Graham suffered from cataracts in both eyes, which essentially made him blind. George Rex Graham is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, PA. George Rex Graham had a sister, Mary, and a brother, William H. Graham. William H. Graham, apparently set up as a publisher by his brother, printed Poe’s Prose Romances in 1843. William moved to New York, where he was the sole agent for Graham’s Magazine. His offices there were in the Tribune Building. Both siblings appear to have been dead by the time of George R. Graham’s death, as it was noted that he had no relatives.