Benjamin Perley Poore
Benjamin Perley Poore | |
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Died | May 30, 1887 | (aged 66)
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Benjamin Perley Poore (November 2, 1820 – May 30, 1887) was a prominent American newspaper correspondent, editor, and author in the mid-19th century. One of the most popular and prolific journalists of his era, he was an active partisan for the Whig and Republican parties.
Biography
Poore was born at the home of his maternal grandparents in
When Poore was seven, his parents took him to
Poore's father purchased a newspaper in
He ran for a seat in the
During the Civil War, he organized a battalion of riflemen at Newbury that formed the nucleus of a company in the 8th Massachusetts volunteers, in which Poore served as major for a short time, retaining the title of Major Poore for the rest of his life. In March 1862, Poore and the novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne were among a small delegation that visited President Abraham Lincoln at the White House.[3]
In addition to his newspaper writing, Poore served as clerk of the committee of the United States Senate on printing records, where he edited the Congressional Directory beginning in 1867 and the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Poore was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1874.[4]
In 1885, Poore organized the Gridiron Club and served as its first president. Designed as social events to bring reporters and politicians together to repair the ill-will sometimes generated by news stories, Gridiron dinners featured satirical songs and skits performed by Washington's leading journalists. The Club's annual white-tie dinners continue to attract presidents and other dignitaries.
When he died in Washington, D.C., on May 30, 1887, The New York Times wrote:[5]
He had a wide acquaintance, having known everybody of consequence in the capital for 30 years or more, was a living storehouse of anecdotes, a popular diner-out, and enjoyed the confidence of many leading public men.
Writings
- Campaign Life of General Zachary Taylor (1848)
- The Rise and Fall of Louis Philippe, Ex-king of the French (Boston, 1848)
- Early Life of Napoleon Bonaparte (1851)
- Agricultural History of Essex County, Massachusetts
- The Conspiracy Trial for the Murder of Abraham Lincoln (1865)
- Federal and State Charters 2 vols., (1877)
- The Life and Public Services of Ambrose E. Burnside (1882)
- A Descriptive Catalogue of the Government Publications of the United States, 1774-1881 (1885)
- Perley's Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis Vol. I (Philadelphia, 1886).
- Perley's Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis Vol. II (Philadelphia, 1886).
References
- ^ "Ben: Perley Poore: The Journalist and Soldier Lays Down his Pen and Sword". Newburyport Daily Herald. May 30, 1887. p. 3. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
Major Ben: Perley Poore, of Indian Hill, West Newbury, died
- ^ "Arrival of Major Ben: Perley Poore in Boston, with his Barrel of Apples" (PDF). The New York Times. Boston. November 8, 1856. p. 1. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
- ^ "Nathaniel Hawthorne on Civil War Matters - The Atlantic".
- ^ American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
- ^ "Ben: Perley Poore Dead" (PDF). New York Times. Washington. May 29, 1887. p. 3. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
- Additional sources
- James Grant Wilson, John Fiske and Stanley L. Klos, eds., Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887–1889)
Further reading
- Joseph P. McKerns, "Benjamin Perley Poore of the Boston Journal: His Life and Times as a Washington Correspondent" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1979).
- Donald A. Ritchie. Press Gallery: Congress and the Washington Correspondents (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991).