author
Frederic W. Beasley
1808–1878
A 19th-century Episcopal clergyman and poet, he wrote with a reflective, old-fashioned charm that blends fiction, verse, and quiet observation. His best-known book, Papers from Overlook-House, offers a window into the literary tastes and moral tone of his era.
1 Audiobook
Papers from Overlook-House
by Frederic W. Beasley
About the author
Born in 1808, Frederic W. Beasley — also identified in archival records as Frederick Williamson Beasley — was part of a Philadelphia-area family whose papers are now preserved by the University of Pennsylvania. He was the son of Frederick Beasley and Marie Williamson Beasley.
Beasley was ordained in the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1832 and spent much of his life as rector of All Saints' Church in Lower Dublin, Pennsylvania. Library and bookseller records also connect him with poetry and literary work, including Henry Venola, the Duellist and the later collection Papers from Overlook-House, published in 1866.
He died in 1878 and was buried at All Saints Episcopal Church Cemetery in Philadelphia. What remains of his work suggests a writer shaped by both ministry and literature, with an interest in storytelling, moral reflection, and the social world around him.