author

Harry Chase Brearley

1870–1940

Best known for lively nonfiction that turns practical subjects into readable history, this early-20th-century American writer explored everything from city planning and fire safety to the long story of timekeeping.

1 Audiobook

Time Telling through the Ages

Time Telling through the Ages

by Harry Chase Brearley

About the author

Harry Chase Brearley was an American nonfiction writer born in Detroit in the early 1870s and active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Catalog and library records link him to books such as The Problem of Greater New York and Its Solution (1914), The History of the National Board of Fire Underwriters (1916), Fifty Years of a Civilizing Force (1916, with Daniel N. Handy), A Symbol of Safety (1923), and Time Telling Through the Ages.

His work often focused on institutions, public systems, and the history behind everyday life. Even when writing about specialized subjects like insurance organizations or watches and clocks, he had a knack for making them feel connected to larger social and historical change.

Some sources list his lifespan as 1871–1940, while others give 1870–1940, so the exact birth year is not entirely consistent in the records reviewed here. No suitable verified portrait image was confirmed from the sources checked.