Calkins, Elmo

Calkins, (Earnest) Elmo (1868–1964) advertising executive, author; born in Geneseo, Ill. A talented copywriter, first in Illinois and then in New York City, he was founding president of Calkins and Holden, New York City (1902–31), regarded as the prototypal modern agency for producing integrated advertising campaigns incorporating high-quality copy and art. He coauthored (with Ralph Holden) the first advertising textbook, Modern Advertising (1905). In his later years he was an essayist and author; severely hearing-impaired since his youth, he often wrote on the problems of the deaf.