Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
John Bartlett ran the University Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts. People often asked him for information on quotations. He began a book of them for reference.  In 1855, he privately printed his book as A Collection of Familiar Quotations. This first edition had 258 pages of quotations by 169 authors. Many of the quotations were from the Bible, William Shakespeare, and the great English poets.