Epes Sargent

Born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1813, he grew up in New England and attended Boston Latin School. He went on to build a wide-ranging literary career as an editor, journalist, poet, playwright, and novelist, working with major Boston and New York periodicals.

His writing reached across genres. Along with poems and plays, he published fiction and biography, and his best-known verse includes the enduring maritime song "A Life on the Ocean Wave." That mix of newsroom energy and literary ambition made him a recognizable figure in 19th-century American letters.

In his later years, he became deeply interested in spiritualism and psychical investigation, a side of his work that still makes him stand out from many of his contemporaries. He died in Boston in 1880.