author
Ben (Benedict) Hogan
A colorful 19th-century memoirist, prizefighter, and adventurer, this writer told his own life story with a showman’s energy. His surviving fame rests on one vivid autobiographical book that mixes immigrant experience, rough-and-tumble travel, and tall-tale swagger.
1 Audiobook
The Life and Adventures of Ben Hogan, the Wickedest Man in the World
by Ben (Benedict) Hogan
About the author
Benedict Hogan is known for The Life and Adventures of Ben Hogan, the Wickedest Man in the World, first published in 1878. Library records list him as “Hogan, Benedict” and suggest a birth year of about 1841, though that date appears uncertain.
The book presents him as a German-born immigrant who came to the United States as a boy and later fashioned a reputation as a fighter, wanderer, and larger-than-life character. It was edited by George Francis Trainer and advertised as being illustrated with more than twenty engravings, which fits its lively, sensational style.
Very little firmly verified biographical information about Hogan appears to survive beyond what is tied to this book itself. That makes him an intriguing figure: not a widely documented literary celebrity, but a voice from the 19th century whose self-told adventures have outlasted most of the details of his life.