American journalist and author, born in Brooklyn, NY, on the 24th of February 1842, receiving an education in the public schools of Illinois, whither his family had moved. From 1859 until he entered the army in 1862 he was connected with the publishing house of Harper Brothers; literary editor of the Christian Union from 1873 to 1876; since, one of the literary critics on the staff of the New York Herald. His first work was a series of sketches of Western life, followed by a volume of Selections from the Spectator (1876); in the same year appeared Helen’s Babies, a humorous sketch without much literary pretense, of which nearly a quarter of a million copies have been sold in the United States; he has since written The Barton Experiment (1876); The Jericho Road (1877); Other People’s Children (1877); The Scripture Club of Valley Rest (1877); Some Folks (1877); The Crew of the Sam Weller (1878); Little Guzzy (1878); The Worst Boy in Town (1879); Just One Day (1880); Who Was Paul Grayson? (1880); Bowsham Puzzle (1884); George Washington (1884); and Couldn’t Say No (1890). His only play, Deacon Crankett, had a long and successful run on the stage.
