Charles Edwards Lester

Background

Charles Edwards Lester was born at Griswold, Connecticut, of New England ancestry, the son of Moses Lester and Sarah Woodbridge, a granddaughter of Jonathan Edwards.

Education

He received a formal education in Connecticut. He studied law at Natchez, Mississippi, under the Democratic leader, Robert J. Walker, later secretary of the treasury under Polk. Lester, who, though an anti-slavery man, was always an ardent Democrat, afterward warmly acknowledged Walker's influence on his character and political views. From 1835 to 1836 he attended Auburn (N. Y. ) Theological Seminary.

Career

Following his schooldays Lester traveled in the Southwest, descending the Mississippi in the winter of 1834-1835. He was admitted to the bar in Mississippi and later was ordained a minister in the Presbyterian church. His interest in the antislavery movement appears in his book Chains and Freedom (1839), the life of a runaway slave. Compelled by ill health to leave the ministry, he visited England in 1840 as a delegate to the World Anti-Slavery Convention, held in Exeter Hall, London, where he met Campbell, Beatty, Dickens, and other British writers.

His book The Glory and the Shame of England (2 vols. , 1841), published upon his return, attracted much attention as an exposure of the hardships of British labor in factories and mines. To a defense by Peter Brown entitled The Fame and Glory of England Vindicated (1842), Lester replied in The Condition and Fate of England (1842). During Polk's administration he was consul at Genoa, 1842-1847, an account of his service appearing in My Consulship (1853). His residence abroad gave opportunity for much study and writing, including translations from Machiavelli, Ceba, Alfieri, and Azeglio, all published in 1845.

Following his return, he lived chiefly in the vicinity of New York, engaged in varied literary work, served as correspondent of the London Times, and was a prolific popular writer in biography, history, and allied fields. His Life and Voyages of Americus Vespucius was published in 1846 and passed through many editions, the last in 1903. Among his other books may be noted Artists of America (1846); The Napoleonic Dynasty (1852), with Edwin Williams; Our First Hundred Years (1874 - 1875); America's Advancement (1876); and lives of Sam Houston (1855), Charles Sumner (1874), Tilden and Hendricks (1876), and Peter Cooper (1883). Though popular rather than erudite, and often compilations designed to meet demands of the hour, his books are generally clear and vigorous, showing genuine interest in the spread of knowledge and liberal ideas.

During the Civil War he worked in Washington hospitals, recording his experiences in The Light and Dark of the Rebellion (1863). He was then engaged on a work to be called "The Great Explorers. " Lester died in Detroit of consumption after several years of increasing ill health.

Achievements

• His "Life and Voyages of Americus Vespucius" (1846), in collaboration with Andrew Foster, based partly on research in Italy, was his best piece of investigation. During his long career he had known intimately Webster, Sumner, Frémont, Greeley, Tilden, the elder Bennett, and many other distinguished figures in public life.

Works

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  • Stanhope Burleigh, Or, the Jesuits in Our Homes, by Helen Dhu

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • The Artists of America: A Series of Biographical Sketches

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • The Condition and Fate of England. Second Edition.

    (Mark Twain once famously said "there was but one solitary...)

  • The Glory and Shame of England

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • The Life and Voyages of Americus Vespucius: With Illustrations Concerning the Navigator, and the Discovery of the New World

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • The Napoleon Dynasty, or the History of the Bonaparte Family: An Entirely New Work (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Napoleon Dynasty, or the History of the ...)

  • Chains and Freedom: Or, The Life and Adventures of Peter Wheeler, a Colored Man Yet Living. A Slave in Chains, a Sailor on the Deep, and a Sinner at the Cross

    (Chains and Freedom: Or, The Life and Adventures of Peter ...)

  • The life of Sam Houston (The only authentic memoir of him ever published): by Charles Edwards Lester

    (Lester was born in Griswold, Connecticut, a descendant of...)

  • The Artist, the Merchant, and the Statesman: Of the Age of the Medici, and of Our Own Times

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

  • My Consulship, Vol. 2 of 2 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from My Consulship, Vol. 2 of 2 Italy, too, hear...)

Personality

In person he was of commanding presence, standing over six feet, possessed of unusual range of knowledge and gifts of conversation.

Connections

His wife was Ellen, daughter of Capt. Haley Brown of Sackett's Harbor, New York, whom he married August 8, 1837. He had one child, Ellen Salisbury, who married Col. Sylvester Larned.

Father:

Moses Lester

Mother:

Sarah Woodbridge

Spouse:

Ellen Brown

Daughter:

Ellen Salisbury

Great-grandfather:

Jonathan Edwards