Livermore, George (1809 -1865)

The American historian and book collector George Livermore, the son of Deacon Nathaniel Livermore and Elizabeth (Gleason), was born at Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. For health reasons Livermore left school at age 14, and worked for his brothers in their store. He was later employed in the shoe and leather business in Boston in 1834. He enjoyed books throughout his life, and collected them from an early age, specifically books on history, antiquities, biblical studies, and the history of printing and book binding. About a quarter of his personal library consisted of Bibles, or related Bible literature, including a rare copy of Cromwell's Soldiers' Pocket Bible (1643) - one of two copies that have survived into the twenty-first century. Livermore also possessed a Coverdale Bible, a Vulgate Bible dating from Venice 1478 that had once belonged to Pope Pius VI, and a 1576 copy of the Geneva Bible presented to Queen Elizabeth by the printer. Livermore married Elizabeth in 1839 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He died at Cambridge, Massachusetts in1858, leaving three sons.