Sales Compendium

Ninety years ago this month, the father of contemporary selling died. John Henry Patterson was 77.

The day after his death, a letter arrived at the offices of System ‘The Magazine of Business’. Patterson had written this letter two days beforehand. It confirmed that he wanted to go ahead with his autobiography, to be written in collaboration with Samuel Crowther. Crowther and Patterson had already had several talks during which Patterson had outlined much of what would go into a series of articles. Apart from the articles in System [starting with Volume 42, Issue Number 5, in November 1922], Crowther published his book ‘John H. Patterson: Pioneer in Industrial Welfare’ just one year later.