Charles Frederick Briggs

Background

Charles Frederick Briggs was born on December 30, 1804 on the island of Nantucket, Massachussets, the son of Jonathan C. and Sally (Coffin) Barrett Briggs. He early went to sea, sailing to Europe and South America on several voyages, but soon gave up the idea of being a sailor, and engaged in mercantile pursuits in New York.

Career

In 1839 Charles Frederick Briggs published a novel called The Adventures of Harry Franco: A Tale of the Great Panic, in which he made use of his experiences gained on the sea. In several subsequent works of fiction he used as a pseudonym the name of the hero of this first work.

In 1843 he wrote The Haunted Merchant and the next year founded the Broadway Journal. Edgar Allan Poe was a contributor from the first number and soon was made associate editor along with Henry G. Watson, a musical critic. Briggs, with characteristic friendliness, began by admiring Poe and defending him against criticism, but could not long remain blind to his talented associate's temperamental peculiarities and weaknesses.

Briggs retired from the Journal in 1845 and in the next two years published Working a Passage, another reminiscence of his sailor days, and The Trippings of Tom Pepper. Some of his friends were annoyed to recognize themselves in the latter book and the author thereupon determined to write no more fiction.

In 1853 he became one of the editors of Putnam's Magazine, in association with Parke Godwin and George William Curtis. After three years the magazine suspended and when it resumed ten years later Briggs was again one of its editors.

He held a position also in the New York Custom House during this period. In 1870 he was made financial editor of the Brooklyn Union by Henry C. Bowen and acted in that capacity for three years. Benjamin F. Tracy, who then bought the paper, made Briggs editor, but the latter soon left to join the editorial staff of the Independent, which Bowen also owned. Briggs served there until a few hours before his death, which came suddenly at his home in Brooklyn.

Achievements

• Among other career activities Charles Briggs was one of the three men who composed the first Board of Commissioners for Central Park, and for twenty-four years he wrote the annual preface for Trow's New York City Directory. His association with Edgar Allan Poe caused the publishers of the Encyclopedia Britannica to have him write the sketch of the poet for that work. Briggs also founded the Copyright Club in 1843. Lowell in his Fable for Critics, which he presented to Briggs with the privilege of copyrighting it and enjoying the proceeds, gave a deservedly appreciative portrait of him under his pseudonym.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Lowell (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Lowell The reference to Maria White brings ...)

  • Giles of Rome's De Regimine Principum: Reading and Writing Politics at

    (Giles of Rome's de Regimine Principum: Reading and Writin...)

  • Putnam's Monthly Magazine of American Literature, Science, and Art, Vol. 4: July to December, 1854 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Putnam's Monthly Magazine of American Litera...)

  • Asmodeus; or, The iniquities of New York: being a complete expose of the crimes, doings and vices as

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • The Story of the Telegraph, and a History of the Great Atlantic Cable: A Complete Record of the Inception, Progress, and Final Success of that Undertaking ... Sketches of the Principal Persons...

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

  • Bankrupt Stories

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

  • The Adventures Of Harry Franco V2

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • The Adventures Of Harry Franco Volume 1

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • The Adventures Of Harry Franco Volume 2

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • The Adventures Of Harry Franco V1

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • The Story Of The Telegraph: And A History Of The Great Atlantic Cable (1858)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Lowell

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • The Story of the Telegraph and a History of the Great Atlantic Cable / By Charles F. Briggs and Augustus Maverick. (By: Charles Frederick Briggs) published: September, 2006

Membership

Charles Briggs was a member of the Copyright Club.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Poe called Briggs "grossly uneducated" and said that he "has never composed in his life three consecutive sentences of grammatical English. "
  
  In his verbal portrait of his friend in “A Fable for Critics, ” Lowell sought to capture Briggs’s mixture of tender-hearted feeling and satirical energy:
  
  "His manner’s as hard as his feelings are tender
  
  And a sortie he’ll make when he means to surrender. "

Interests

• Writers

  At some point of his literary career Briggs began to admire Edgar Allan Poe and defended him against criticism.

Connections

In the late 1830s Briggs put his efforts into supporting a wife, Deborah Rawson, a first cousin he married on May 16, 1836, on Nantucket.

Father:

Jonathan C. Briggs

Mother:

Sally (Coffin) Barrett Briggs

associates:

Benjamin F. Tracy

Henry C. Bowen

Wife:

Deborah Rawson

colleague:

Henry J. Raymond

In the interim he was an editor of the New York Times under Henry J. Raymond, and during the latter's absence in Europe was given editorial charge of the paper.

Friend:

James Russell Lowell

He was a friend of James Russell Lowell, with whom he had considerable correspondence at a time when Poe was attacking Longfellow, and, less vigorously, Lowell himself on fancied grounds of plagiarism.

associate:

George William Curtis

Parke Godwin 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 and Parke Godwin.

associate:

Edgar Allan Poe

author

References

• Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance
• Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy
• The Raven and the Whale: The War of Words and Wits in the Era of Poe and Melville
• James Russell Lowell; Illustrated with Photographs
• James Russell Lowell - Poet, Critic, Editor, Teacher, Diplomat