Charles MacFarlane

Born in 1799, Charles MacFarlane was a Scottish writer and journalist who built an unusually varied career in the early Victorian literary world. He spent time in France and later lived in the Ottoman Empire, experiences that fed into his travel writing and historical work. He wrote for periodicals as well as for the expanding market in popular nonfiction.

MacFarlane published books on subjects including Constantinople, Turkey, India, and English history, and he also wrote biographies and novels. His best-known work today is often cited as The Camp of Refuge, but his output was much broader, reflecting the 19th-century appetite for readable history and wide-ranging commentary.

His life was not always easy. He was imprisoned for debt in the 1840s, a setback that interrupted but did not end his writing life. He continued publishing afterward and died in 1858, leaving behind the record of a prolific author who moved easily between journalism, history, and travel literature.