Krystian Teofil Glucksberg (1796-1876)

 Krystian Teofil Glucksberg managed his father’s company, which was situated in Krzemieniec, until 1828. Glucksberg competed fiercely with J. Zawadzki and won eventually, gaining at the same the title of typographer and bookseller of the Vilnius University. After the university had been closed, Glucksberg had titles of both typographer and bookseller at the Imperial Royal Medico-Chirurgical Academy, Schools of Belarusian District in Kiev and Vilnius Science District. Krystian Teofil Glucksberg established a bookstore and a printing house in Vilnius and branches of them both in Kiev in 1846. He also introduced door-to-door selling at manor houses in the province. As a result, readers received the first Vilnius issue of works written by Adam Mickiewicz. Among books which Glucksberg issued there were: “Dzieła” (“Works”) by K. Brodziński (volumes from 1 to 10 published between 1842 and 1844), “Literatura i krytyka” (“Literature and Criticism”) by M. Grabowski, “Koliszczyzna i stepy” (“Koliyivschyna and Steppes”), “Korespondencja literacka” (“Literary Correspondence”), “Pamiętniki” (“Memoirs”) by Jan Chryzostom Pasek and some works by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Henryk Rzewuski, Władysław Syrokomla. Glucksberg printed also “Atheneum” magazine (until 1848) and “Teka wileńska” (“Vilnius File”) published by A.H. Kirkor. Krystian Teofil Glucksberg and his brother, August Emanuel Glucksberg, undertook the initiative to publish “Encyklopedia Powszechna” (“Universal Encyclopedia”) in 1836-1840. However, only volumes 1-4 and a part of volume 9 were published due to the lack of subscribers. A small number of subscribers was, in turn, a result of progressing impoverishment of the society stemming from the repressions after the January Uprising.
Glucksberg bought presses and fonts from the Basilian printing house in Vilnius in 1845. As of 1858, he had a double fast machine, a rolling machine for satin the paper and a rich topographic collection enabling to print text in different languages. Contrary to the rest of his family, Teofil’s printing policy was driven only by economic profit. Consequently, this led to an inevitable fall – writers were badly paid and therefore did not agree to sign contracts with him. Moreover, sloppy editing, despite having modern printing equipment, scared off the readers. In the end, Krystian Teofil Glucksberg sold the Vilnius printing house, which was run-down and burdened with debts, to A. H. Kirkor in 1859. Furthermore, Glucksberg sold both of his bookstores to Bookstore-Publishing Association in Żytomierz.