George M. (George Makepeace) Towle

George Makepeace Towle was an American author, editor, lawyer, and public figure born in Washington, D.C., in 1841 and educated at Yale and Harvard Law School. His career ranged widely: he practiced law in Boston, served in the U.S. diplomatic corps, and was active in journalism and literary work.

He is remembered most for his translations of Jules Verne, especially an early English version of Around the World in Eighty Days, which helped introduce Verne to many readers. Towle also wrote popular historical and biographical books, including works on explorers and major figures from world history, showing a talent for making big lives and faraway journeys accessible to general audiences.

That mix of scholarship, travel-minded curiosity, and clear storytelling gives his work its lasting appeal. He died in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1893, but his name still turns up wherever classic adventure, translation, and 19th-century popular history meet.