James Parton

James Parton

James Parton (born February 9, 1822 in Canterbury , England, † October 17, 1891 in Newburyport , Massachusetts) was an American writer who was particularly outstanding as a writer of biographies.

Life

At the age of five, after the death of his father, Parton moved with his mother and three siblings from England to the USA. He studied at John Swinburne's Academy in White Plains, New York State, and became a teacher there after graduation. After a visit to England he returned to the USA in 1845 and was given the post of teacher at a private school in Philadelphia. He has now acquired American citizenship. However, he soon had to give up his position as a teacher, as he confessed to being an agnostic , which was rejected in America, which is characterized by religion. In 1848 he accepted a position at a private academy in New York and began to write on the side. He was so successful with it that the New York Home Journal hired him as an author in 1852. However, the collaboration lasted only a short time, he parted ways with the paper and instead began writing biographies. The Life of Horace Greeley appeared in 1855 . The book was followed by others: 1857 Life and Times of Aaron Burr , 1860 Life of Andrew Jackson , 1864 Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin , 1874 Life of Thomas Jefferson, and 1881 Life of Voltaire . He also published General Butler in New Orleans in 1863 , Famous Americans of Recent Times in 1867 , The Peoples Book of Biography in 1868 , Noted Women of Europe and America in 1883, and Captains of Industry in two series in 1884 and 1891 for a young audience. He was considered one of the most widely read biographers of his time.

Works

Books by James Parton on the Internet Archive - online