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 In writing the "Life of Andrew Jackson" he also had access to original and unpublished documents.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.