About Isaac K. Funk
Isaac Kaufmann Funk was an American Lutheran minister, editor, lexicographer, publisher, and spelling reformer. He was the co-founder of Funk & Wagnalls Company, the father of author Wilfred J. Funk, and the grandfather of author Peter Funk, who continued his father's authorship of Word Power until 2003. Funk & Wagnalls Company published The Literary Digest, The Standard Dictionary of the English Language, and Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia. Perhaps Funk's most important achievement was his Standard Dictionary of the English Language, the first volume of which was published in 1893. He founded the Voice in 1880, an organ of the Prohibition Party, and he was the Prohibition candidate for mayor of New York. That year he founded and published the Metropolitan Pulpit (later its name was changed to Homiletic Review). Missionary Review also numbered among the many religious publications he founded after 1876.
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