author
Abraham Tomlinson
Best known for preserving and publishing firsthand soldiers’ journals from early American wars, this little-known 19th-century editor helped rescue vivid pieces of history that might otherwise have been lost. His work has lasting appeal for listeners who enjoy eyewitness accounts and Revolutionary-era stories.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Abraham Tomlinson is remembered less as a traditional author than as an editor and compiler of historical material. Library and public-domain records link him to The Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, 1758–1775, a book published in Poughkeepsie in 1855 and credited to him as compiler or publisher.
According to LibriVox’s author note, he was working at the Poughkeepsie Museum in 1854 when he found the journals of two American soldiers—one from the French and Indian War and one from the Revolutionary period—and prepared them for publication. In the book’s own front matter, he presents the volume from the Poughkeepsie Museum in December 1854, which suggests a strong personal role in bringing these documents to print.
Because so little biographical information about him is widely documented, Tomlinson remains a somewhat shadowy figure. Even so, his contribution is clear: he helped preserve rare firsthand accounts and made them available to later generations of readers interested in early American history.