Charles C. (Charles Carroll) Bombaugh

Born in 1828, Charles Carroll Bombaugh trained as a doctor, graduating from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1853. He later served as a surgeon with the 69th Pennsylvania during the Civil War, though sources indicate he resigned in 1862 because of poor health.

Alongside his medical career, he became known as an editor and literary compiler. Records of his books show a long run of popular miscellanies, including Gleanings for the Curious from the Harvest-Fields of Literature, The Book of Blunders, The Literature of Kissing, and Facts and Fancies for the Curious. These works gathered quotations, anecdotes, language oddities, and historical curiosities into lively collections meant as much for dipping into as for serious reference.

Bombaugh died in 1906. What still stands out about his writing is its warm, browsing quality: he was less interested in building a single argument than in rescuing strange, amusing, and memorable fragments from books and passing them on to other curious minds.