Nelson Doubleday was born in
Brooklyn, New York to
Frank Nelson Doubleday (the first Doubleday ancestor came to Boston in the early 1600s from England) (the name Doubleday is English – possibly of Norman origin originally,
DuBaldy ) and
Neltje Blanchan. His older brother Felix Doty was adopted, and he had a younger sister Dorothy. In the city, the children attended a private Friends School run by
Quakers. The family moved out to a large estate in
Locust Valley on Long Island, called "Effendi" after their father's nickname given to him by his friend, the British author
Rudyard Kipling. The author wrote his
Just So Stories after the boy Nelson asked him to publish a book of animal stories. Nelson grew up in the world of book publishing, as his father had founded the Doubleday company. His mother wrote several books about gardening and birds, which were considered notable for their combination of scientific content and lyrical expression. Nelson later studied at
Dr. Holbrook's Military School in
Ossining, New York. He attended two years of
New York University before joining his father in business, which he found more interesting. Even as a youth, he had creative solutions to business issues, for instance, suggesting selling dated magazines at a discount and thereby gaining some revenue from them. ==Career==