Meine, Franklin Julius (1896-1968) | Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Franklin Julius Meine was born in Chicago on May 18, 1896, to Theresa Salomon (1864-1937) and Franklin H.C. Meine (1865-1940), a grocer. Meine graduated from the University of Chicago in 1917, after which he attended the Carnegie Institute and Harvard University. Throughout his career, he undertook several roles, including author, editor, publisher, rare book dealer, and auction house director. It was during this time that he also built his collection of works by American humorists, particularly Mark Twain.

Meine was associated with a number of professional organizations, including the Cliff Dwellers and Caxton Club, serving as president of the Society of Midland Authors in the 1920s and as co-founder, bibliographer, and vice president of the Mark Twain Society of Chicago in the 1930s. Meine also was editor of the American Peoples Encyclopedia, first published in 1948.

In 1926, Meine married Helen Lomax (1895-1984); the couple shared two children. Meine died in Alexandria, VA on December 28, 1968. He is buried in Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.

Find a Grave. "Franklin Julius Meine." Accessed July 2, 2026. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/237377252/franklin-julius-meine.

Franklin J. Meine collection. University of Illinois Chicago. https://archivesspace.uic.edu/repositories/2/resources/1200.

Fulton, Joe B. “Stormfield Scholar: Franklin Meine.” Mark Twain Journal 57, no. 2 (2019): 132–39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45284574.

“Public Library Lectures Will Begin Oct. 13” Chicago Daily Tribune, October 3, 1948. ProQuest.

Population Schedule for Chicago, Illinois. ED 16-1601, Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Records of the Bureau of the Census, RG 29. National Archives, Washington, DC.