B. F. (Benjamin Franklin) Craig

Born in 1814, B. F. Craig — Benjamin Franklin Craig — was an American author associated with Kentucky by birth and Missouri by later residence. Genealogical records located during this search place him in Gallatin County, Kentucky, and later in Clinton County, Missouri, where he lived during the years leading up to and following the Civil War.

Craig is known today through works including The Border Ruffian, The Rough Diamond, and Pen Pictures, of Eventful Scenes and Struggles of Life. Those titles suggest the kind of writing he was drawn to: dramatic episodes, hard travel, conflict, and everyday struggle in 19th-century America. His books have been preserved by Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive, which has helped keep his work available to modern readers.

Reliable biographical detail about him is fairly limited in the sources found, so a full literary portrait is hard to build with confidence. Still, the available record points to a writer interested in rough-edged American life and in capturing the feel of a fast-changing country from close range.