author
Edwin Emerson
1869–1959
A globe-trotting journalist and war correspondent, he turned firsthand reporting into brisk histories, travel writing, and accounts of conflict. His career moved from newspaper work and the Spanish-American War to widely read books on the modern world.
2 Audiobooks
A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year. Volume 2 (of 3)
by Edwin Emerson
Comet Lore: Halley's Comet in History and Astronomy
by Edwin Emerson
About the author
Born in Dresden in 1869 and educated at Harvard, Edwin A. Emerson Jr. built a career as an American journalist, editor, and author with an unusually international range. He worked as a foreign correspondent and wrote for newspapers and magazines including the Boston Post, the New York Evening Post, The Sun, and Collier's Weekly.
Emerson is especially remembered for his work as a war correspondent and for his involvement in the Spanish-American War, when he served with Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders as regimental clerk and was also connected with intelligence work in Puerto Rico. That mix of reporting and direct experience shaped much of his writing, which often focused on military affairs, world events, and recent history.
He wrote or edited numerous books, including large-scale historical surveys such as A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year and The Nineteenth Century and After. His writing tends to bring together the reporter's eye for vivid detail with the historian's interest in big events and turning points. He died in 1959.