author

Joseph Gilpin Pyle

b. 1853

Best known for a major authorized biography of railroad builder James J. Hill, this late-19th- and early-20th-century writer also published a sharp literary satire in the Shakespeare authorship debate. His work moves between serious historical narrative and lively argument, which makes him an interesting rediscovery.

1 Audiobook

The Little Cryptogram

The Little Cryptogram

by Joseph Gilpin Pyle

About the author

Joseph Gilpin Pyle was an American author born in 1853. Internet Archive records for his books identify him as Joseph Gilpin Pyle, 1853-1930, which helps place his career across the late 1800s and early 1900s.

He is best known for The Life of James J. Hill, an authorized two-volume biography published in 1917 by Doubleday, Page & Company. The work was substantial enough to be cited later as a leading source on Hill, showing that Pyle was trusted with a major historical subject.

An earlier book, The Little Cryptogram (1888), took on Ignatius Donnelly's famous Shakespeare cipher theory with parody and close argument. That mix of literary wit and documentary seriousness gives Pyle's writing a distinctive character: curious, argumentative, and deeply engaged with the debates of his time.