James Brown (May 19, 1800 – March 10, 1855) was an American publisher and co-founder of Little, Brown and Company.

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James Brown
Born	May 19, 1800  Acton
Died	March 10, 1855  (aged 54) Watertown
Occupation	Publisher
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Brown was born in Acton, Massachusetts on May 19, 1800. He started his working life as a servant in the family of Levi Hedge, a professor from Cambridge, Massachusetts, who instructed him in the classics and mathematics.^[1]

Around 1832, he began work with Hilliard, Gray & Co. on Washington Street in Boston, where he worked with William Hilliard and others.^[2] He was originally hired as a clerk. The firm was dissolved following the death of one of its partners, and Brown then began working for Charles C. Little & Co.,^[1] run by Charles Coffin Little, also as clerk.

In 1837, the firm became Charles C. Little and James Brown, and Brown remained there until his death. Augustus Flagg joined them in 1838 and became the publishing house's managing partner after the deaths of the two founders.

The firm's name was changed to Little, Brown and Company in 1847.^[3]

In 1853, Little, Brown began publishing the works of British poets from Chaucer to Wordsworth. There were 96 volumes published in the series in five years, but Brown did not live to see its completion.

Brown died in Watertown, Massachusetts on March 10, 1855, at age 54.^[4]

His son John Murray Brown took over when Flagg retired in 1884. A life of James Brown, by George Stillman Hillard, was published in Boston, in 1855.^[1]