author
Francis Johnson
1837–1908
A German-born journalist and historical writer, he built a career in the American Midwest after immigrating as a young man. His best-known work, Famous Assassinations of History, turns dramatic political killings into vivid, accessible episodes from the past.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Rostock, Mecklenburg, in 1837, Francis Johnson came to the United States with his family at about age eighteen and settled in Lafayette, Indiana. His father had been a professor of modern literature and history at the University of Rostock, and Johnson later drew on that literary background in his own writing.
He worked in journalism for many years. According to a Northern Illinois University biographical note, he founded a German-language newspaper in Lafayette, later spent time in Europe, and after returning to the United States became associated with The Lakeside Monthly in Chicago in the 1870s.
Johnson is remembered today chiefly for Famous Assassinations of History (1903), a book that presents major political murders as dramatic moments within larger historical conflicts. He died in 1908.