E. Parmalee (Ezra Parmalee) Prentice

Born in 1863, E. Parmalee Prentice studied at Amherst College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and then pursued legal study at Harvard before building his career as an attorney. Early in his writing life, he published substantial legal works including The Commerce Clause of the Federal Constitution and The Federal Power Over Carriers and Corporations.

Prentice later became widely associated with agriculture as well as law. His published books include Breeding Profitable Dairy Cattle, Farming for Famine, Food, War and the Future, and Hunger and History, showing a deep interest in food production, public policy, and the long human story behind scarcity and survival.

He also wrote on education and family history, and his memoirs were published late in life. That breadth makes him an interesting figure for modern listeners: a writer who moved easily between legal argument, social thought, and the everyday realities of farming.