Willis P. (Willis Pope) Hazard

Willis P. Hazard, short for Willis Pope Hazard, lived from 1825 to 1913 and produced a remarkably varied body of work. Library and archive records connect his name with books published across the mid- and late 1800s, showing him as both an author and a publisher with strong ties to Philadelphia.

His catalog is strikingly wide-ranging. He was credited with The American Guide Book (1846), an early handbook for travelers in the United States; Comic History of the United States (1861), which was issued under the pseudonym Herod Otis; and later practical works such as The Jersey, Alderney, and Guernsey Cow and How to Select Cows. He was also linked to children’s and popular books, including The American Family Robinson and Mother’s Goose’s Melodies.

Hazard also appears in connection with historical and genealogical material, including Recollections of Olden Times, which brought together Narragansett history and family records. Taken as a whole, his work suggests a writer drawn to useful, readable books—whether he was helping readers travel, learn, laugh, or trace the past.