author
James Kirke Paulding
1778–1860
An early American satirist and novelist, he helped shape a distinctly national voice in U.S. literature while also serving in public office. He is especially remembered for his work with the Irvings on the lively periodical Salmagundi and for later novels that drew on American settings and themes.
2 Audiobooks
The book of Saint Nicholas
by James Kirke Paulding
Salmagundi : or, The whimwhams and opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, esq., and others
by William Irving, Washington Irving, James Kirke Paulding
About the author
Born in New York in 1778, he came of age when the young United States was still defining its identity, and that energy runs through much of his writing. He became a close associate of Washington Irving and William Irving, and together they produced Salmagundi, a witty satirical series that poked at politics, manners, and culture in the early republic.
He went on to write essays, poems, plays, and novels, and is often noted for embracing American subjects at a time when many writers still looked mainly to Europe for models. Among his best-known books are The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan, a sharp political satire, and The Dutchman’s Fireside, a novel that was widely read in its day.
His career also reached well beyond literature. He served in the U.S. government and became Secretary of the Navy under President Martin Van Buren. Paulding died in 1860, leaving behind a body of work that reflects both the humor and the nation-building spirit of early American writing.