American author, born at Portland, ME, on the 25th of August 1793. After a varied experience of business life he studied law, but decided to obtain his living by his pen. In 1817 he published his first novel, Keep Cool, and about the same time was disowned by the Society of Friends, in which he had been brought up. He published a volume of poems, a tragedy, and wrote the History of the American Revolution, to which Paul Allen’s name was prefixed. He prepared an index to the 50 volumes of Niles’ Register, and wrote Seventy-Six and other novels. Going to England in 1824, he wrote for Blackwood’s Magazine and other periodicals, and lived for a time with Bentham. Returning to America in 1827, he settled at Portland, and wrote diligently for the newspapers, practised law, and taught sparring and fencing. He gave up his profession in 1850, but continued to write. He died at Portland, ME, on the 20th of June 1876. Among his works are Brother Jonathan (1825); Rachel Dyer (1828); Bentham’s Morals and Legislation (1830); Down-Easters (1833); True Womanhood (1859), and finally his Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life (1870). See also Literary Criticism.
