Edward W Bok

The Americanization of Edward Bok Edward W Bok

Edward William Bok (born Eduard Willem Gerard Cesar Hidde Bok (October 9, 1863 - January 9, 1930) was a Dutch-born American editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He was editor of the Ladies' Home Journal for 30 years (1889-1919). Bok is credited with coining the term living room as the name for a room of a house that had commonly been called the parlor or drawing room. He also created Bok Tower Gardens in central Florida. Bok was born in Den Helder, Netherlands. At the age of six, he immigrated to Brooklyn, New York. In Brooklyn he washed the windows of a bakery shop after school to help support his family. His people were so poor that in addition he used to go out in the street with a basket every day and collect stray bits of coal that had fallen in the gutter where the coal wagons had delivered fuel.