E. W. Cole

Edward William Cole (1832–1918) was an Australian bookseller and author. Born in Kent, he emigrated to the Victorian goldfields in 1852, sold lemonade and pies to miners and opened a book stall in Melbourne's Eastern Market in 1865. Cole's Book Arcade, which he built in Bourke Street in 1883, claimed a million volumes, employed a band and a monkey house, and became a Melbourne institution. He compiled Cole's Funny Picture Book in 1879 to promote it, advertised in the newspapers for a wife, campaigned for a federation of the world and wrote pamphlets against racial prejudice and for Australian irrigation.