author
Charles J. (Charles Jacobs) Peterson
1819–1887
A major figure in 19th-century Philadelphia publishing, he helped shape popular reading through magazines, novels, and lively historical writing. He is best remembered for founding Peterson’s Magazine and for his long presence in the literary world around Graham’s Magazine and The Saturday Evening Post.
1 Audiobook
Kate Aylesford: A Story of the Refugees
by Charles J. (Charles Jacobs) Peterson
About the author
Charles Jacobs Peterson was an American editor, publisher, and writer who spent most of his career in Philadelphia. Sources agree that he was closely tied to the city’s literary and publishing scene, working with Graham’s Magazine, becoming an owner and partner of The Saturday Evening Post, and later founding Peterson’s Magazine, one of the best-known women’s magazines of its day.
He studied law at the University of Pennsylvania and was admitted to the bar, but he turned instead to journalism and publishing. Alongside his editorial work, he wrote both fiction and history, including popular military histories. He also published under several pen names, among them J. Thornton Randolph.
His career shows both the reach and the contradictions of 19th-century American print culture. In addition to his success as a magazine founder and editor, he wrote The Cabin and Parlor; or, Slaves and Masters, a pro-slavery response to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. No clear portrait image could be confirmed from the sources reviewed here.