In 1909, Abraham Franklin Lewis, a Chicago printer, created a hand typeset directory of his friends in the local printing trade. This was the start of A.F. Lewis & Co., which grew to become publisher of major printing industry directories. Abraham Lewis' grand nephew, running the company in the late 1990s, entrusted Whitestone to sell this family business. Whitestone concluded the transaction, drawing the highly-regarded Cahners Publishing group of Reed Elsevier as the buyer.
