INTRODUCTION.


James Parton was born in Canterbury, England, February 9, 1822. When
five years old he was brought to America and given an education in the
schools of New York City, and at White Plains, N. Y. Subsequently he
engaged in teaching in Philadelphia and New York City, and for three
years was a contributor to the _Home Journal_. Since that time, he
has devoted his life to literary labors, contributing many articles to
periodicals and publishing books on biographical subjects. While
employed on the _Home Journal_ it occurred to him that an
interesting story could be made out of the life of Horace Greeley, and
he mentioned the idea to a New York publisher. Receiving the needed
encouragement, Mr. Parton set about collecting material from Greeley's
former neighbors in Vermont and New Hampshire, and in 1855 produced the
"Life of Horace Greeley," which he afterwards extended and completed in
1885. This venture was so profitable that he was encouraged to devote
himself to authorship. In 1856 he brought out a collection of Humorous
Poetry of the English Language from Chaucer to Saxe. Following this
appeared in 1857 the "Life of Aaron Burr," prepared from original
sources and intended to redeem Burr's reputation from the charges that
attached to his memory. In writing the "Life of Andrew Jackson" he also
had access to original and unpublished documents. This work was
published in three volumes in 1859-60. Other works of later publication
are: "General Butler in New Orleans" (1863 and 1882); "Life and Times of
Benjamin Franklin" (1864); "How New York is Governed" (1866); "Famous
Americans of Recent Times," containing Sketches of Henry Clay, Daniel
Webster, John C. Calhoun, John Randolph, and others (1867); "The
People's Book of Biography," containing eighty short lives (1868);
"Smoking and Drinking," an essay on the evils of those practices,