Charles Astor Bristed (1820–1874)

American author, born in New York City on the 6th of October 1820. He was graduated at Yale in 1839, and spent five years at Trinity College, Cambridge, England, where he distinguished himself and was made a foundation scholar of his college. He then became known to magazine-readers as “Carl Benson.” His mother was an Astor, and he was an original trustee of the Astor Library in New York City. He traveled extensively in Europe, and on his return to the United States settled in Washington, DC, where he died, on the 15th of January 1874. Among his works are Five Years’ in an English University (1851, 1872); The Upper Ten Thousand (1852); Pieces of a Broken-Down Critic (1858); The Interference Theory of Government (1867); and Anacreontics (1872).