Thomas Bulfinch

Born in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1796, Thomas Bulfinch was an American author remembered above all for the work now known as Bulfinch's Mythology. He studied at Harvard, graduating in 1814, and came from a notable Boston family: his father was Charles Bulfinch, the architect associated with the Massachusetts State House and work on the United States Capitol.

Bulfinch spent much of his working life outside literary celebrity, including time in banking, and wrote with a clear educational purpose. His best-known books — The Age of Fable (1855), The Age of Chivalry (1858), and Legends of Charlemagne (1863) — retold classical and medieval stories for general readers in an accessible style.

That gift for making old tales feel readable is the reason his work has lasted. Though first written in the 1800s, his retellings remained a familiar gateway to mythology for many later readers, and the combined posthumous edition of his mythological works helped secure his lasting place in American literary culture.