"Send me a list, and group them, as, for instance: presidents and vice-presidents, famous soldiers, actors, authors, etc." "And thus," says Mr.Knapp, as he tells the tale today, "I gave Edward Bok his first literary commission, and started him off on his literary career." And it is true.
But Edward soon found the Lithograph Company calling for "copy," and, write as he might, he could not supply the biographies fast enough.
He, at last, completed the first hundred, and so instantaneous was their success that Mr.Knapp called for a second hundred, and then for a third.

Finding that one hand was not equal to the task, Edward offered his brother five dollars for each biography; he made the same offer to one or two journalists whom he knew and whose accuracy he could trust; and he was speedily convinced that merely to edit biographies written by others, at one-half the price paid to him, was more profitable than to write himself.
So with five journalists working at top speed to supply the hungry lithograph presses, Mr.Knapp was likewise responsible for Edward Bok's first adventure as an editor.

It was commercial, if you will, but it was a commercial editing that had a distinct educational value to a large public.
The important point is that Edward Bok was being led more and more to writing and to editorship..