author

James Melville Beard

Best known today for a rare 1877 book on the early Ku Klux Klan, this little-documented 19th-century writer survives in the historical record mostly through his work rather than through a well-known public biography.

1 Audiobook

K. K. K. Sketches, Humorous and Didactic

K. K. K. Sketches, Humorous and Didactic

by James Melville Beard

About the author

James Melville Beard was a 19th-century American author whose name is chiefly associated with K. K. K. Sketches, Humorous and Didactic. The book was published in Philadelphia in 1877, and modern library and public-domain records consistently identify him as its author.

Reliable biographical details about his life are scarce in the sources readily available online. Project Gutenberg and The Online Books Page list him mainly through that title, which suggests that his reputation today rests on a small surviving body of work rather than on a widely documented career.

Because so little confirmed personal information is easy to verify, it is safest to remember him as a historical writer known for leaving behind an early published account connected to Reconstruction-era America and the Ku Klux Klan.