author
Fred A. Gannon
b. 1881
A prolific local historian and journalist, he wrote lively short works on Salem’s past and on the history of American shoemaking and leather making. His books are compact, curious, and full of early-20th-century interest in everyday work and local memory.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in 1881, Fred A. Gannon is also listed in some library records as Frederic Augustus Gannon. Surviving catalog and archival records connect him with a string of historical pamphlets and books, including Shoe Making, Old and New, A Short History of American Shoemaking, Historical Sketch of American Leather Making, and The Ways of a Worker of a Century Ago.
He is also remembered for writing and compiling the Old Salem Scrap Book series and other brief works about Salem, Massachusetts. A Salem local-history source describes him as a reporter for the Salem Evening News, which fits the practical, anecdotal style of his historical writing.
Much of what is easy to confirm about him today comes from library catalogs and digitized editions rather than from full biographical profiles, so details of his later life remain unclear here. What does stand out is the range of his nonfiction: he preserved stories of local New England life while also documenting the history of trades such as shoemaking and leather making.