W. P. (William Peter) Strickland

Born in Pittsburgh on August 17, 1809, William Peter Strickland became a Methodist Episcopal minister and went on to build a substantial writing career alongside his church work. Reference sources consistently describe him as an American Methodist minister and author, and note that he later served as a chaplain during the Civil War.

Strickland wrote across several genres, which makes him a surprisingly varied figure for modern readers. Bibliographic records link him to religious and historical works such as History of the American Bible Society and History of the Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as well as biographical and frontier-themed books including The Pioneers of the West and The Backwoods Preacher. Science fiction reference works also remember him for The Astrologer of Chaldea (1855), a tale set in ancient Babylonia.

He died on July 15, 1884, in Brooklyn, New York. Although he is not widely known today, his work offers a vivid window into 19th-century American religious life, reform culture, and the era's appetite for biography, moral storytelling, and adventurous historical narrative.