Sylvanus Cobb Jr. (June 5, 1823 – July 20, 1887) was an American popular fiction writer during the mid-19th century. His work was published in the '' New York Ledger'', '' The Flag of Our Union'', ''The Weekly Novelette'', '' Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion'', and elsewhere.

Brief biography

Cobb was born in

Waterville, Maine Waterville is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, United States, on the west bank of the Kennebec River. A college town, the city is home to Colby College, a New England Small College Athletic Conference, NESCAC college, and Thomas College. As ...

to Sylvanus Cobb and Eunice Hale Waite. Cobb served in the United States Navy, 1840–ca.1843. He married Jane Head in 1845; they had two children. He joined the

Freemasons Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

Norway, Maine Norway is a town in Oxford County, Maine, United States. Norway was included in the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area. The population was 5,077 at the 2020 census. It is home to Pennesseewassee Lake, a freshwa ...

in 1854.Ella Waite Cobb
A memoir of Sylvanus Cobb Jr.
Published for his family, C. L. Peters & son, printers, 1891. He began writing stories around 1850.

Frederick Gleason Frederick Gleason (c.1817 – November 6, 1896) was a publisher in Boston, Massachusetts, in the mid-nineteenth century. He is best known for establishing the popular illustrated weekly '' Gleason's Pictorial'', at the time an innovation in Ameri ...

published Cobb's first story, "The Prophet of the Bohmer Wald: a Tale of the Time of Joseph II, Emperor of Germany" in '' The Flag of Our Union''. His work was also published in ''Gleason's Pictorial'' beginning in 1851. Cobb wrote prolifically. He "wrote and sold no less than 120 novels, more than 800 short stories, and found time to prepare some 90,000 manuscript pages of short items to pad out the columns of ... weeklies." Some say he sacrificed quality for quantity. According to one biographer, "Mr. Cobb was a fluent writer, who spent little time perfecting his style. As he summed up his work he wrote in the 31 years that he contributed to the New York Ledger 89,544 large pages of manuscript."George Waldo Browne. Pioneers of popular literature. Granite State magazine, v.3, no.2, Feb. 1907; p.54 Others evaluated Cobb as "a prolific writer of sensational tales quite without literary value." Cobb published under various pseudonyms: * Austin C. Burdick * Charles CastletonAlbert Johannsen
The house of Beadle and Adams and its dime and nickel novels
the story of a vanished literature. 1950. * Col. Walter B. Dunlap * Enoch Fitzwhistler * Dr. J.H. Robinson * Dr. S. LeCompton Smith * Symus, the Pilgrim * Amos Winslow Jr. Several of his stories were adapted for the stage, including "The Mystic Bride." His "stories were reprinted many times by other publishers including Street & Smith (Columbia Library); Beadle & Adams; Frederic A. Brady; Elliott, Thomes & Talbot; George W. Studley; Ogilvie (Detective Series); and Donahue (Flashlight Detective Series)." Around 1869, Cobb relocated to

Hyde Park, Boston Hyde Park is the southernmost neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Situated 7.9 miles south of downtown Boston, it is home to a diverse range of people, housing types and social groups. It is an urban location with suburban ch ...

, where he lived until his death in 1887. "Mr. Cobb amassed a large fortune by his pen, and built himself a handsome house at Hyde Park. His study was situated in a remote corner of the house in a tower built exclusively for his convenience. There he wrote uninterrupted, surrounded by all the curious odds and ends that he had picked up during his life. He was particularly fond of arms and armor, and his collection of these articles was rare and valuable." Friends included the professional magician Jonathan Harrington. Cobb's portrait was painted by his brother, Darius Cobb.Appleton's cyclopædia of American biography. 1888.

Selected works

* '' The Gunmaker of Moscow'' (1856 serial, 1888 book)
Fernando: or, The Moor of Castile
A Romance of Old Spain. F. Gleason's Publishing Hall, 1853.
Ben Hamed: or, The Children of fate
A Story of the Eastern World. Elliott, Thomes & Talbot, 1863.
A Love Match
P. Bonner's Sons, 1891.
Orion, the Gold Beater
H. T. Coates, 1896.

References

External links

* * WorldCat
Cobb, Sylvanus 1823-1887
* New York Public Library
Portrait of Cobb
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cobb, Sylvanus 1823 births 1887 deaths Writers from Boston 19th-century American novelists Novelists from Maine People from Waterville, Maine American male novelists American male short story writers 19th-century American short story writers 19th-century American male writers Novelists from Massachusetts People from Hyde Park, Boston Cobb family

Brief biography

Selected works

References

Further reading

External links