author
John Bell Bouton
1830–1902
A 19th-century journalist and novelist, he wrote with an eye for politics, travel, and everyday American life. His books range from Civil War-era fiction to a lively travel narrative about Russia, giving modern readers a clear sense of the world he moved through.
2 Audiobooks
Round the Block: An American Novel
by John Bell Bouton
Roundabout to Moscow: An Epicurean Journey
by John Bell Bouton
About the author
Born in Concord, New Hampshire, in 1830, John Bell Bouton built his career as both a journalist and a man of letters. Sources on his life describe him as an American journalist and writer, and New Hampshire Historical Society records connect him with editorial work at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the New York Journal of Commerce, and Appleton’s Annual Cyclopaedia.
His writing moved easily between forms. Reference sources credit him with the essay collection Loved and Lost (1857), the novel Round the Block (1864), the travel book Roundabout to Moscow: An Epicurean Journey (1887), and the political satire Uncle Sam’s Church (1895). Taken together, those titles show a writer interested in both public affairs and the texture of daily life.
Bouton died in New York in 1902. Today, he is remembered as one of those versatile 19th-century authors whose work sits at the crossroads of journalism, fiction, and travel writing.