1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Parton, James

PARTON, JAMES (1822–1891), American biographer, was born in Canterbury, England, on the 9th of February 1822. He was taken to the United States when he was five years old, studied in New York City and White Plains, New York, and was a schoolmaster in Philadelphia and then in New York. He removed (1875) to Newburyport, Massachusetts, where he died on the 17th of October 1891. Parton was the most popular biographer of his day in America. His most important books are Life of Horace Greeley (1855), Life and Times of Aaron Burr (1857), Life of Andrew Jackson (1859–1860), Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (1864), Life of Thomas Jefferson (1874), and Life of Voltaire (1881). Among his other publications are General Butler in New Orleans (1863), Famous Americans of Recent Times (1867), The People’s Book of Biography (1868); Noted Women of Europe and America (1883), and Captains of Industry (two series, 1884 and 1891), for young people. His first wife, Sara (1811–1872), sister of N. P. Willis, and widow of Charles H. Eldredge (d. 1846), attained considerable popularity as a writer under the pen-name “Fanny Fern.” (See James Parton’s Fanny Fern: a Memorial Volume, 1873). They were married in 1856. Her works include the novels, Ruth Hall (1854), reminiscent of her own life, and Rose Clark (1857); and several volumes of sketches and stories. In 1876 Parton married Ethel Eldredge, his first wife’s daughter by her first husband.