The Innes Letters #1

From Lee Finley’s Article: The Little Things Mean A Lot

William T(Hornton) Innes (1874 – 1969)

William T(hornton) Innes (1874-1969) was the master aquarist of the 20th Century (Figure 1). Joe Ferdenzi (2007 in Addendum) labeled him a “Paragon Of the Aquarium Hobby” and noted that many aquarists consider him “…the Father of the American Aquarium Hobby.” The grandson of Innes, William Innes Homer, noted him to be “…a pathfinder for fishkeeping hobbyists (Homer 2011).

Innes published many books that he wrote or edited and – printed them – he was a life long printer. But the Exotic Aquarium Fishes was his pinnacle (Figure 2). Ichthyologist George S. Myers called his first edition (1935) of the book the “book-of-books.” Al Klee, hobby historian, called the book(s) “the piece de resistance of all books” published within the same time frame. Lastly, in 1953 Herbert Axelrod, in his first published book, inscribed the following to Innes in a presentation copy “… without whose pioneering no book on tropical fishes could be a success…”. Although many pages have been written about Innes, someday, some time, hopefully someone will do a full biography of this greatest of American aquarists.