Hubert Platt Main was born in 1839 in Ridgefield, Connecticut. He was the son of Sylvester Main, a singing school teacher. He attended the local singing school until he went to New York City in 1854 to work as an errand boy in a wallpaper store. The following April, Hubert Main took a similar entry-level job at the publishing house Bristow and Morse. He also helped his father publish the ''Sunday School Lute Songbooks'' by IB Woodbury. In 1864, Sylvester Main invested in a publishing company owned by William Bradbury and Hubert was working there by 1867. After Bradbury's death the following year, the Mains' succeeded him in founding the music publishers Biglow and Main. One of the company's most important hymn writers was Fanny VanAlstyne Crosby . Hubert Main worked with his father until his death in 1873, eventually publishing over 500 works. He also worked with other music editors, including George A. Bell, Mrs. Wilbur F. Crafts, and Ira D. Sankey (part of Dwight Moody's evangelistic team). Main arranged music and wrote over 1000 pieces, from singing school songs to Sunday school music and church hymns.
Main also collected music books and sold his collection (over 3,500 volumes) in 1906 to the Newberry Library in Chicago, Illinois, where they form the core of their Americana collection.
Main died on October 7, 1925 in Newark, New Jersey. Some of his hymns are still being republished today.
