author
Elihu Burritt
1810–1879
A self-taught blacksmith turned writer, lecturer, and reformer, he became famous as the "Learned Blacksmith" for his extraordinary dedication to study. His life joined practical work with big causes, especially peace, abolition, and international understanding.
2 Audiobooks
A Walk from London to John O'Groat's With Notes by the Way
by Elihu Burritt
About the author
Born in New Britain, Connecticut, in 1810, Elihu Burritt grew up with limited formal schooling and apprenticed as a blacksmith after his father's death. He used spare moments at the forge to teach himself mathematics, languages, and literature, earning a reputation for remarkable learning that followed him for the rest of his life.
Burritt became widely known as a lecturer and writer, and he used that platform to support major reform movements of the 19th century. He argued against slavery, promoted temperance and social improvement, and became especially important as a peace activist, founding the League of Universal Brotherhood and encouraging international cooperation between ordinary people as well as political leaders.
His work eventually took him abroad and into public service, including a period as United States consul at Birmingham in England. He died in 1879, but he is still remembered as an unusual and inspiring figure: a craftsman whose lifelong habit of self-education helped turn him into one of his century's best-known advocates for peace and human fellowship.