Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Perkins, Frederic Beecher

PERKINS, Frederic Beecher, author, b. in Hartford, Conn., 27 Sept., 1828; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 3 February, 1899. He was a member of the class of 1850 at Yale, but left college in 1848 and began the study of law. In 1851 he was admitted to the bar at Hartford, and a year later he entered the Connecticut normal school, where he was graduated the same year. He held various posts in Hartford until 1854, in which year he went to New York, remaining until 1857. Then, returning to Hartford, he became assistant editor of “Barnard's American Journal of Education,” and was also appointed librarian of the Connecticut historical society. Later he became secretary of the Boston public library, and in 1880-'7 he was librarian of the San Francisco free public library. While there he published his “Rational Classification of Literature for Shelving and Cataloguing Books in a Library” (San Francisco, 1881; revised ed., 1882). He has been editorially connected with various papers and magazines. Among his writings are “Scrope, or the Lost Library” (Boston, 1874); “My Three Conversations with Miss Chester” (New York, 1877); “Devil-Puzzlers, and other Studies” (1877); and “Charles Dickens: his Life and Works” (1877). He has also edited or compiled bibliographical works, notably a “Check-List of American Local History” (Boston, 1876) and the 4th edition of “Best Reading” (New York, 1877).