CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH, an eminent German bookseller, was born at Rudolstadt on the 21st of April 1772, known in Germany as "the great hunger year." His father, who was secretary of the exchequer to the house of Rudolf Schwartburg, died in 1777, and left his widow and child almost entirely unprovided for. The fatherless boy had the good fortune, some years afterwards, to be taken in charge by his maternal uncle, a state official, and a man of great uprightness and kindness of disposition. After spending in a somewhat unsatisfactory manner some years at the gymnasium of his native town, he was apprenticed to one Bohme, a bookseller in Leipzig, on the 11th September 1787. Perthes was passionately fond of reading; and if he no longer found leisure to indulge his propensity for perusing books, he at least got plenty of them to carry through the streets of Leipzig. After six "happy years of earnest striving," as he calls it, in the strict service of this rough, honest old bookseller, relieved not a little at times by the smiles of his fair daughter Frederika, Perthes, no longer in abject poverty, and full of enthusiasm, set out for Hamburg in 1793, to assist one Hoffman, an extensive publisher in that city. After a three years' residence there, during which he laboured hard to improve his education, both by careful study and by cultivating the friendship of men of intelligence and worth, he entered into partnership with an old fellow-apprentice named Nessig. This copartnery soon broke up, however, and Perthes continued on his own account. Bookselling with Perthes was, even at this time, something more than a mere commercial employment. The moral influence of the trade he considered to be very great, if only the booksellers could be brought "to care more for honour than gold." He accordingly resolved to aim at a thorough reform of his profession in Germany. His acquaintance with literary men was already extensive, and the ready intelligence, thorough business habits, and honest, genial temper of the young publisher, gradually drew around him the most eminent literary men of his time in Germany. He was already held in esteem by the Stolbergs, by Voss, and by Count Reventlow; and he regarded Jacobi, "the German Plato," with the love and reverence of a father. On the 2d of August 1797 Perthes married Caroline, daughter of Claudius, editor of the Wandsbecker Bote, and one of the noblest women Germany has yet known. In the following year he entered into partnership with Besser, who was his superior both in education and in his knowledge of books, and set steadily to work to make their firm the medium of the literary intercourse of the nations of Europe. The blockade of Hamburg by the French in 1803 brought trying times to these enterprising men, which a long series of years of trouble and anxiety hardly brought to a close. The French having regained possession of Hamburg, after their expulsion by the Russians in 1813, devastated the town, plundered Perthes' shop, and closed it up as sequestrated. As one of the ten who were refused pardon for their staunch resistance of foreign oppression, Perthes was forced to fly. His wife, who, with her children, had found a refuge at Wandsbeck, was, despite extreme privation, devoutly thankful "that your [Perthes'] name stands among the ten enemies of the tyrant." By the exertions of Besser, business was again resumed in 1814. Having lost his wife in 1821, Perthes removed from Hamburg, and, settling at Gotha, commenced an extensive business as a publisher, chiefly of works in theology and in history. He brought out the works of Neander, Ullman, Tholuck, and Bunsen in theology, and of Niebuhr and other eminent writers in history. Niebuhr had the greatest regard for Perthes, always spoke admiringly of his "glorious power," and esteemed his judgment of books as superior to that of most men in Germany. Perthes married a second time in 1825; ultimately resigned his business to his son Justus, who continues to carry it on; and having retired to the neighbourhood of Gotha, this good man died on the 18th of May 1843.

A highly instructive and entertaining Life of Perthes was published by his son Clemens Theodor, professor of law in the university of Bonn, in 3 vols. 8vo, 1848-55. This work has been translated into English, with some condensation, and published under the title of Memoirs of Frederick Perthes; or, Literary, Religious, and Political Life in Germany from 1789 to 1843, 2 vols. 8vo, Edinburgh, 1856. There is also an abridgment of this work, entitled Life and Times of Frederick Perthes, 1 vol. 8vo, Edinburgh, 1858. In addition to these memoirs of his father, C. T. Perthes has written Der Deutsche Staatsleben vor der Revolution, 1845; and Einverleibung Krahans, und die Schlussakte des Wiener Congresses, 1846.