author
D. W. (David W.) Bartlett
1828–1912
A prolific 19th-century American writer and journalist, he turned current events, public figures, and European travel into lively, accessible books for a broad readership. His work ranges from campaign biographies of Franklin Pierce and Abraham Lincoln to historical lives and travel writing.
2 Audiobooks
Paris: With Pen and Pencil Its People and Literature, Its Life and Business
by D. W. (David W.) Bartlett
About the author
David W. Bartlett (1828–1912), also found in library records as D. W. Bartlett, was an American author best known for biographies, historical sketches, and travel books published in the mid-to-late 1800s. Catalogs from the Library of Congress and the Online Books Page list works such as The Life of Gen. Franklin Pierce, The Life and Public Services of Hon. Abraham Lincoln, The Heroes of the Indian Rebellion, What I Saw in London, and Paris: With Pen and Pencil.
His bibliography shows a writer drawn to big personalities and public affairs. He wrote about presidential candidates, reformers, and famous women from history, including Lady Jane Grey and Joan of Arc, often in a brisk, popular style meant for general readers rather than specialists.
Some modern book and memorial records identify him more fully as David Vandewater Golden Bartlett and describe him as a Washington correspondent connected with the New-York Independent and the Evening Post. While details of his life are not as easy to pin down as his long list of books, the record of those books makes clear that he was a busy literary figure whose work sat at the crossroads of journalism, biography, and 19th-century public culture.