author
Thomas Green Fessenden
1771–1837
Best remembered for mixing sharp satire with practical farming advice, this early American writer moved easily between the worlds of law, journalism, and agriculture. He wrote with energy, humor, and a strong interest in everyday life in the young republic.
1 Audiobook
Terrible Tractoration, and Other Poems
by Thomas Green Fessenden
About the author
Born in Walpole, New Hampshire, in 1771, Thomas Green Fessenden was an American author and editor whose career ranged across law, poetry, journalism, and agricultural writing. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1796, practiced law, and spent part of his career in England before returning to the United States.
He became known for lively satirical writing, including work published under the name Christopher Caustic. Alongside that literary side, he also devoted much of his attention to practical subjects and helped shape early American agricultural journalism.
Fessenden is especially associated with The New England Farmer, the influential publication he founded in 1822. Through it, he shared information meant to be useful to working farmers, and his writing helped connect literature, public debate, and everyday rural life. He died in Boston in 1837.