Francis S. (Francis Samuel) Drake

author

Francis S. (Francis Samuel) Drake

1828–1885

Drawn to American history and biography, this 19th-century writer built reference books that aimed to make the past more searchable and alive. His work on notable figures and Revolutionary-era subjects helped shape later biographical dictionaries.

1 Audiobook

Tea Leaves Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction, notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)

Tea Leaves Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction, notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)

by Francis S. (Francis Samuel) Drake

About the author

Born in Northwood, New Hampshire, in 1828 and educated in Boston’s public schools, Francis Samuel Drake grew up in a bookish world: his father, Samuel Gardner Drake, was an antiquarian bookseller and historian. Drake followed a similar path as a Boston bookseller, historian, and compiler, developing a lasting interest in American history and historical research.

He is best known for his Dictionary of American Biography (first published in 1872), a large reference work containing thousands of sketches of notable people connected with the Americas. He also wrote books including The Town of Roxbury, Life of General Henry Knox, Tea Leaves, and Indian History for Young Folks, showing a range that stretched from local history to the American Revolution and writing for younger readers.

Drake died in Washington, D.C., on February 22, 1885. Sources about his career note that the material he assembled for biography later helped feed into Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography, which gives a sense of how useful and ambitious his reference work was for later generations.