Ignatius Donnelly

Born in Philadelphia in 1831, Ignatius Donnelly became a lawyer, writer, and politician whose career took off after he moved to Minnesota. He served as lieutenant governor of Minnesota and later represented the state in the U.S. House of Representatives, building a reputation as an energetic speaker and reform-minded public figure.

Donnelly was deeply involved in anti-monopoly and Populist politics. He edited newspapers, ran for office several times, and became one of the best-known voices calling for economic and political reform in the late 1800s.

He is also remembered for his unusual and influential books. In Atlantis: The Antediluvian World he argued that the lost continent of Atlantis lay behind many ancient civilizations, and in The Great Cryptogram he claimed that Francis Bacon wrote the works of Shakespeare. Those theories are not accepted by scholars today, but they helped make him one of the most distinctive American writers and political figures of his era.