Charles Frederick Briggs (December 30, 1804 – June 20, 1877), also called C. F. Briggs, was an American journalist, author and editor, born in

Nantucket, Massachusetts Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachus ...

. He was also known under the pseudonym "Harry Franco", having written ''The Adventures of Harry Franco'' in 1839, which was followed by a series of works dealing more or less humorously with life in New York City.

Biography

Briggs had been a sailor in

then a wholesale grocer. When his novel ''The Adventures of Harry Franco'' was suddenly successful, he pursued a career in journalism.Silverman, Kenneth. ''Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance''. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991: 243. The publication of this humorous adventure story in 1839 was an immediate sensation and led to even his friends nicknaming him "Franco", much to his dismay. In '' The Knickerbocker'', Briggs began a series of humorous stories, including a serialized story that, though incomplete, was produced as the novel ''The Haunted Merchant'' in 1843. Briggs founded the Copyright Club in 1843. The organization sought to spread awareness of the need for international

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...

law, though Briggs left the Club when a magazine named ''Centurion'' "contrived to monopolize all the credit". Briggs started the '' Broadway Journal'' in 1844 in New York City. He handled editorial duties and solicited for publications while his business partner, former schoolteacher John Bisco, handled publishing and financial concerns. One of his contributors was his friend

James Russell Lowell James Russell Lowell (; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets that r ...

, though Briggs disapproved of Lowell's "hot and excited" abolitionism. In December 1844, Lowell wrote to Briggs to recommend

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

for a job at the new magazine. Poe became associate editor of the publication in January 1845 and co-editor a month later, also becoming one-third owner. Though Poe was a partial owner of the journal, Briggs never considered him a partner but "only an assistant". Poe called Briggs "grossly uneducated" and said that he "has never composed in his life three consecutive sentences of grammatical English." In June 1845, Briggs resigned due to financial difficulties and, in October, Bisco sold his part of the magazine to Poe for $50 (Poe paid with a note endorsed by

Horace Greeley Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and editor of the '' New-York Tribune''. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressman from New York ...

). The magazine's final publication was dated January 3, 1846. C. F. Briggs later worked as editor for several other publications including ''Holden's Dollar Magazine'' and as managing editor for '' Putnam's Magazine'' (1853-1856) in connection with associate editors

George William Curtis George William Curtis (February 24, 1824 – August 31, 1892) was an American writer and public speaker born in Providence, Rhode Island. An early Republican, he spoke in favor of African-American equality and civil rights both before and after ...

and

Parke Godwin Parke Godwin (January 28, 1929 – June 19, 2013) was an American writer. He won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella in 1982 for his story "The Fire When It Comes". He was a native of New York City, where he was born in 1929. He was the ...

. With Curtis and Godwin, he also produced a gift book called ''The Homes of American Authors'' (1852). Later he served on the staff of the '' Times'', the ''Evening Mirror'', the ''Brooklyn Union'', and, finally, the ''Independent''. Briggs died on June 20, 1877, in Brooklyn.

Critical response

Lowell wrote of Briggs in his ''

A Fable for Critics ''A Fable for Critics'' is a book-length satirical poem by American writer James Russell Lowell, first published anonymously in 1848. The poem made fun of well-known poets and critics of the time and brought notoriety to its author. Overview The ...

'': "He's in joke half the time when he seems to be sternest / When he seems to be joking, be sure he's in earnest". He went on: '' ...as he draws near'' ''You find that's a smile you took for a sneer;'' ''One half of him contradicts t'other; his wont'' ''Is to say very sharp things and do very blunt,'' ''His manners as hard as his feelings are tender'' Later, Lowell wrote to him in 1844, "You Gothamites strain hard to attain a metropolitan character, but I think if you ''felt'' very metropolitan you would not be showing it on all occasions".Delbanco, Andrew: ''Melville, His World and Work''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005: 97–98.

Selected list of works

*''The Adventures of Harry Franco: A Tale of the Great Panic'' (1839) *''The Haunted Merchant'' (1843) *''Bankrupt Stories'' (1843) *''Working a Passage, or Life in a Liner'' (1844) *''The Trippings of Tom Pepper; or, The Results of Romancing, an Autobiography'' (1847) *''Asmodeus; or, The iniquities of New York'' (1849)

References

External links

Charles Frederick Briggs
at Nantucket Historical Society

at th
Edgar Allan Poe Society online
at the Early American Fiction Collection at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

Obituary
from the ''New York Times'' (June 1877)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Briggs, Charles Frederick American humorists American magazine editors American newspaper journalists 1804 births 1877 deaths Edgar Allan Poe People from Nantucket, Massachusetts 19th-century American journalists American male journalists 19th-century American male writers Journalists from Massachusetts