Background
Horace Binney Wallace was born on South Fourth Street, Philadelphia to a wealthy family. His father was John Bradford Wallace, a lawyer His mother, Susan, was sister to the prominent lawyer Horace Binney.
Horace Binney Wallace was born on South Fourth Street, Philadelphia to a wealthy family. His father was John Bradford Wallace, a lawyer His mother, Susan, was sister to the prominent lawyer Horace Binney.
Wallace began college at The University of Pennsylvania in 1830 at the age of thirteen. He then transferred in his junior year to Princeton University, where he graduated in 1835.
Horace Wallace was the youngest of the family and had six older siblings: Susan, Mary, Elizabeth, William (died at 3 years old), Marshall (died at 1 year old), and John William. He was recalled as being a child of a "somewhat individual and reclusive" disposition, as well as "fond and amiable". One of his Princeton professors, Willard Thorp, characterized him as being "an enigma wrapped in a cloak of mystery."
Along with the judge John Innes Clark Hare, he published "a careful editorship" of Smith"s Leading Cases and Tudor"s Leading Cases in Equity.
Many of his legal writings were also published in George Pope Morris and Nathaniel Parker Willis"s Home Journal.
Wallace published under a number of pseudonyms during his career, including "William South. Somner", "William Landor", and "John H. Meredith". He contributed to many magazines including Graham"s Magazine, Godey"s Lady"s Book, and The Knickerbocker.
He is well known for having published in Burton"s Gentleman"s Magazine at the same time as Edgar Allan Poe, with whom he corresponded. Poe wrote that "He is an elaborately careful, stiff, and pedantic writer, with much affectation and great talent.
Should he devote himself ultimately to letters, he cannot fail of high success."
Griswold, after discovering the true identity of "William Landor," requested that Horace Wallace be featured in his upcoming Prose Writers of America (1847).
Wallace declined. Instead, Griswold dedicated the volume to him. Horace Wallace was unmarried and had no children.
He died at the age of thirty-five in the Hotel des Bains, Paris.
He was a member of the Bar of Philadelphia.