Boyd Winchester, author of a charming book on Switzerland, was born in
Ascension Parish, Louisiana, September 23, 1836. He came to Kentucky
when a youth and entered Centre College, Danville, where he studied
for three years. He subsequently spent two years at the University of
Virginia. Mr. Winchester was graduated from the Law School of
Louisville, Kentucky, in 1858, and that city has been his home ever
since. He rose rapidly in his profession; and he later served a single
term in the Kentucky legislature, and two terms in the lower House of
Congress. President Cleveland appointed Mr. Winchester United States
Minister to Switzerland, in 1885, and the next four years he resided
at Berne. While in Switzerland Mr. Winchester was an ardent student of
the country's history and a keen observer of its aspects and
institutions. On his return to the United States he wrote his
well-known book, _The Swiss Republic_ (Philadelphia, 1891). A fire his
publishers, the Lippincotts, suffered shortly after his volume was
issued, destroyed the unsold copies, and the small first edition was
soon exhausted. The work has thus become exceedingly scarce.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _National Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New
York, 1906, v. xiii); _General Catalogue of Centre College_.