author
Henry M. (Henry Mason) Brooks
1822–1898
A Salem historian and collector of curious early American print culture, this 19th-century writer turned old newspapers into lively books full of local color. His work preserves the odd habits, entertainments, and everyday details of New England life that might otherwise have vanished.
7 Audiobooks
Handbook of the Trees of New England
by Lorin Low Dame, Henry M. (Henry Mason) Brooks
The Olden Time Series, Vol. 1: Curiosities of the Old Lottery Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts
by Henry M. (Henry Mason) Brooks
The Olden Time Series: Vol. 2: The Days of the Spinning-Wheel in New England Gleanings Chiefly from old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts
by Henry M. (Henry Mason) Brooks
The Olden Time Series, Vol. 6: Literary Curiosities Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts
by Henry M. (Henry Mason) Brooks
The Olden Time Series, Vol. 3: New-England Sunday Gleanings Chiefly From Old Newspapers Of Boston And Salem, Massachusetts
by Henry M. (Henry Mason) Brooks
About the author
Born in 1822, Henry Mason Brooks was a Massachusetts writer remembered for gathering and reshaping fragments of the past into readable, engaging books. He is especially associated with Salem and with the Essex Institute, where he served as secretary in the final decade of his life.
Brooks is best known for The Olden Time Series, a set of volumes drawn chiefly from old Boston and Salem newspapers. In books such as Curiosities of the Old Lottery, The Days of the Spinning-Wheel in New England, New-England Sunday, and Literary Curiosities, he preserved the small, vivid details of everyday history rather than only its major events. He also worked on Olden-time Music and co-authored Handbook of the Trees of New England.
He died in 1898. What makes his writing appealing now is its browsing quality: page after page offers odd facts, forgotten customs, and voices from earlier New England, gathered by someone who clearly delighted in the texture of local history.