Charles Morris (October 1, 1833 – September 7, 1922) was an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, novelist and author of popular historical textbooks.

Biography

He was born in

Chester, Pennsylvania Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located within the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, it is the only city in Delaware County and had a population of 32,605 as of the 2020 census. Incorporated in 1682, Chester is ...

, the son of Samuel Pearson Morris and Margaret Burns. After studying locally he worked as a teacher in Chester, but in 1856 moved to Philadelphia where he became professor of languages at the ''Academy of Ancient and Modern Languages''.The House of Beadle and Adams: Charles Morris, A project of the Northern Illinois University Libraries
/ref> He abandoned his academic career in 1860, working in business up to 1878, while developing his reputation as a professional creative writer and journalist. He published short stories, poems, and serial novels in ''Beadle's Saturday Journal''. After becoming a full-time writer he published a large number of history textbooks, including ''The War with Spain'', histories of the United States, a general ''History of the World'', ''The Story of Mexico'', and ''History of Pennsylvania''. Other publications include ''Civilization, a Study of its Elements'', ''The Aryan Race: its Origin and Achievements'', ''The Greater Republic'' and the ''Dictionary of Universal Biography''. He also compiled a series of ''Historical Tales''. These are retold legends and historical events meant to be read for enjoyment rather than used as textbooks. He also wrote biographies, notably of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

and

William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...

. He edited collections of interviews with writers under the titles ''Half Hours with the Best American Authors'' and ''Half Hours with the Best British Authors''. Morris also wrote

dime novel The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paperbound editions. The term ''dime novel'' has been used as a catchall term for several different but related forms, r ...

s. As was common practice at the time, these were often published under a variety of pseudonyms. These names included, "Redmond Blake", "Edward Lytton", "Jo Pierce", "C. E. Tripp", "R. R. Inman", and "George S. Kaine", "Paul Preston", "William Murry", "E. L.Vincent", "J. H. Southard", "Roland Dare", "S. M. Frazier", "Hugh Allen", "J. D. Ballard", and "Paul Pastnor". Immediately after the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...

, he was sent by his publisher to write a first-hand report on the event which was published as ''The San Francisco calamity by earthquake and fire''. Charles Morris died at his home in Philadelphia on September 7, 1922.

Selected publications

''The Aryan Race: Its Origins and its Achievements''
(1888)
''Tales From the Dramatists, 1580 to 1780''
(1898)
''A New History of the United States. The Greater Republic''
(1899)
''Our Island Empire: A Hand-Book of Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippine Islands''
(1899)
''The War With Spain: A Complete History of the War of 1898 Between the United States and Spain''
(1899)
''The Wonderful Century, 1800-1900: Its History and Progress''
(1899)
''Man and His Ancestor: A Study in Evolution''
(1900)
''The Handy Dictionary of Biography''
(1901)
''The Gallant Deeds of Our Naval Heroes Told for Boys and Girls''
(1902)
''The History of Pennsylvania''
(1913)
''Primary History of the United States: The Story of Our Country for Young Folks''
(1913)
''An Elementary History of the United States''
(1915)
''Famous Days and Deeds in Holland and Belgium''
(1915)
''Heroes of the Army in America''
(1919) * 'The Child's Story of America''(1901)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Charles 1833 births 1922 deaths 19th-century American novelists American male novelists American male journalists 19th-century American historians 19th-century American male writers Dime novelists People from Chester, Pennsylvania