Merrick Abner Richardson

Merrick Abner Richardson was an American author born in 1841 and best known for Looking Back: An Autobiography, a privately printed memoir published in 1917. The book presents his own life story alongside accounts of his family background, making it both a personal remembrance and a window into earlier American life.

The title page of Looking Back also credits him with several other works, including Jim Hall and the Richardsons, Eight Days Out, Mina Faust, Rose Lind, Personality of the Soul, Black Sheep, and Twilight Thoughts. In one passage from the memoir, Richardson suggests that writing was something he pursued alongside business and social life, which helps explain the practical, conversational tone of his work.

Because easily available biographical sources on Richardson are limited, many details of his life remain harder to confirm quickly than the facts of his authorship and publication history. What does come through clearly is the appeal of his writing: it preserves one person’s memory of the 19th century in a direct and readable way.