James Parton was born in Canterbury, England, February 9, 1822. When
five years old he was brought to America and given an education in the
schools of New York City, and at White Plains, N. Y. Subsequently he
engaged in teaching in Philadelphia and New York City, and for three
years was a contributor to the _Home Journal_. Since that time, he
has devoted his life to literary labors, contributing many articles
to periodicals and publishing books on biographical subjects. While
employed on the _Home Journal_ it occurred to him that an interesting
story could be made out of the life of Horace Greeley, and he mentioned
the idea to a New York publisher. Receiving the needed encouragement,
Mr. Parton set about collecting material from Greeley's former neighbors
in Vermont and New Hampshire, and in 1855 produced the "Life of Horace
Greeley," which he afterwards extended and completed in 1885. This
venture was so profitable that he was encouraged to devote himself to
authorship. In 1856 he brought out a collection of Humorous Poetry of
the English Language from Chaucer to Saxe. Following this appeared
in 1857 the "Life of Aaron Burr," prepared from original sources and
intended to redeem Burr's reputation from the charges that attached to
his memory. In writing the "Life of Andrew Jackson" he also had access
to original and unpublished documents. This work was published in three
volumes in 1859-60. Other works of later publication are: "General
Butler in New Orleans" (1863 and 1882); "Life and Times of Benjamin
Franklin" (1864); "How New York is Governed" (1866); "Famous Americans
of Recent Times," containing Sketches of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster,
John C. Calhoun, John Randolph, and others (1867); "The People's Book
of Biography," containing eighty short lives (1868); "Smoking and
Drinking," an essay on the evils of those practices, reprinted from the
_Atlantic Monthly_ (1869); a pamphlet entitled "The Danish Islands: Are
We Bound to Pay for Them?" (1869); "Topics of the Time," a collection
of magazine articles, most of them treating of administrative abuses
at Washington (1871); "Triumphs of Enterprise, Ingenuity, and Public
Spirit" (1871); "The Words of Washington" (1872); "Fanny Fern," a
memorial volume (1873); "Life of Thomas Jefferson, Third President of
the United States" (1874); "Taxation of Church Property" (1874); "La
Parnasse Français: a Book of French Poetry from A.D. 1850 to the Present
Time" (1877); "Caricature and other Comic Art in All Times and Many
Lands" (1877); "A Life of Voltaire," which was the fruit of several
years' labor (1881); "Noted Women of Europe and America" (1883); and
"Captains of Industry, or Men of Business who did something besides
Making Money: a Book for Young Americans." In addition to his writing
Mr. Parton has proved a very successful lecturer on literary and
political topics.
In January, 1856, Mr. Parton married Sara Payson Willis, a sister of the
poet N. P. Willis, and herself famous as "Fanny Fern," the name of her
pen. He made New York City his home until 1875, three years after the
death of his wife, when he went to Newburyport, where he now lives.
_The London Athenæum_ well characterizes Mr. Parton as "a painstaking,
honest, and courageous historian, ardent with patriotism, but
unprejudiced; a writer, in short, of whom the people of the United
States have reason to be proud."
The contents of this book have been selected from among the great number
contributed from time to time by Mr. Parton, and are considered as
particularly valuable and interesting reading.