James Parton

Born in Canterbury, England, in 1822 and brought to the United States as a child, James Parton grew up in New York and worked first as a teacher before moving into journalism. He later became known as a professional biographer at a time when that field was still taking shape.

His breakthrough came with The Life of Horace Greeley in 1855, and he went on to write widely read studies of major political and historical figures, including Aaron Burr, Andrew Jackson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Voltaire. Reference works describe his biographies as careful and well researched, and later writers have even called him a father of modern biography.

Parton was also connected to a notable literary household through his marriage to Sara Payson Willis Parton, better known as Fanny Fern. He died in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1891, leaving behind a body of work that helped shape the way many readers encountered history through life stories.