author
Pliny Miles
1818–1865
A 19th-century American writer and traveler, he is remembered for books that mixed practical instruction with curiosity about the wider world, including an early travel account of Iceland. His work ranges from memory training to observations on society, politics, and commerce.
1 Audiobook
Norðurfari; or, Rambles in Iceland
by Pliny Miles
About the author
Born in 1818 and dying in 1865, Pliny Miles was an American author whose books show an energetic, wide-ranging mind. Surviving catalog records identify him as the author of American mnemotechny, or the art of memory (1848), a guide to memory techniques, and later works on broader social and political themes.
He is also known for Norðurfari; or, Rambles in Iceland, a travel narrative that helped introduce English-language readers to Iceland’s landscapes and culture in the 19th century. That mix of practical instruction and travel writing gives his work a distinctive character: part self-improvement, part observation, and part curiosity about how people live.
Reliable biographical detail about his personal life appears to be limited in the sources I could confirm here, so it is safest to remember him chiefly through his published work. Even so, the variety of his books suggests a writer interested in both the workings of the mind and the wider world beyond the United States.