Randolph: A Novel / By the Author of Logan and Seventy-Six
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John Beedle's Sleigh Ride, Courtship, and Marriage
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Battle of Niagara: A Poem, Without Notes; And Goldau, Or, the Maniac Harper ...
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A History of the American Revolution; Comprehending All the Principal Events Both in the Field and in the Cabinet; Volume 1
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John Neal was an American author, editor, and man of affairs.
Background
John Neal was born on August 25, 1793 at Falmouth, now Portland, Maine, United States. He was the son of a Quaker schoolmaster of the same name, who died in September 1793, leaving to his wife, Rachel (Hall) Neal, the rearing of their month-old twins, John and Rachel. The boy was strong, active, and self-reliant.
Education
He attended school until the age of twelve whereupon he entered into business. He received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Bowdoin (1836).
Career
John supported himself as clerk in a succession of shops and then as itinerant teacher of penmanship and drawing in the Kennebec River towns. At twenty-two he found himself stranded in Baltimore, after the failure of a business venture there in partnership with John Pierpont.
During the next eight years he worked prodigiously, editing for brief periods the Baltimore Telegraph and the Portico, a magazine projected by the Delphians, a club of which he and Pierpont were members; compiling a considerable portion of A History of the American Revolution credited to Paul Allen; and writing actively for the Portico and other publications.
He was dismissed from the Society of Friends "for knocking a man who insulted him head over heels; for paying a militia fine; for making a tragedy; and for desiring to be turned out, whether or no".
In December 1823, desirous of extending his literary reputation, he sailed for England. There he won access to the pages of Blackwood's Magazine in May 1824, with an astute survey of the candidates and issues in the current American presidential campaign. Then followed, in the chief British periodicals, some two dozen or more other long articles, written partly from the assumed viewpoint of an Englishman familiar with the United States, and with the design of creating better understanding and respect for America in England. Most notable was "American Writers", critical estimates of 135 different American authors, based solely upon memory and ranging in length from a single curt sentence to ten pages for Irving, eight for himself, four for Charles Brockden Brown, and a half page for his rival, Cooper. His own poems he characterized as "abounding throughout in absurdity, intemperance, affectation, extravagance--with continual, but involuntary imitation: yet, nevertheless, containing, altogether, more sincere poetry, more exalted, original, pure, bold poetry, than all the works, of all the other authors that have ever appeared in America".
Blackwood published in July 1825 Neal's novel, Brother Jonathan, containing some good scenes from New England life. The later months of his stay abroad were spent in the household of the aged utilitarian, Jeremy Bentham, for whom Neal later became an enthusiastic spokesman in America, publishing in 1830 a translation of Bentham's Principles of Legislation from Dumont's French rendition, with a memoir of the author.
In the summer of 1827, Neal landed in New York, intending to practise law there.
On a visit to his home, however, hearing of threats against him, based upon supposed reflections on local characters in his novels, he changed his plans and settled in Portland for life.
Within ten years he had overcome prejudice against him; he published three more novels: Rachel Dyer (1828), Authorship (1830), and The Down-Easters (1833); done valuable pioneer work in organizing gymnasium classes; won some note as a public speaker, and established a fortune by prudent investments in Maine granite quarries.
From January 1828 to the end of 1829 he edited a literary periodical, the Yankee, published first at Portland. later at Portland and Boston in fusion with the Boston Literary Gazette.
Later Neal edited for short periods the New England Galaxy, at Boston, and a Portland newspaper. Stories and poems of his were published in the annuals, the Atlantic Souvenir and the Token; in Lowell's magazine, the Pioneer; and later in Godey's, Graham's, and several other periodicals.
After 1840 Neal devoted less attention to the law and more to real-estate promotion and civic interests. His activities in the latter field brought him occasionally into bitter conflict with his cousin, "mischief-making, meddlesome Neal Dow". In January and February 1843, at the New York Tabernacle, he delivered a series of addresses in behalf of woman's rights, culminating in a debate with Park Benjamin and Colonel William L. Stone. Later in that year, from May to December, he succeeded N. P. Willis as editor of the weekly Brother Jonathan, at New York, in which his novel "Ruth Elder" appeared as a serial.
After 1850 he continued writing actively for periodicals, with contributions to the North American Review, Harper's Magazine, the Northern Monthly (Portland), the Atlantic Monthly, and numerous others.
The great fire of 1866 in Portland destroyed much of his property, but he threw himself whole-heartedly into the task of rebuilding the city. His pride in it is shown in Portland Illustrated (1874) and in frequent passages in his autobiography. This work, published as Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life, was suggested to him by his lifelong friend, Longfellow, in 1859, but though thrice rewritten, it did not appear until 1869. Neal died at Portland after a brief illness, in his eighty-third year.
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Personality
As writer of most of the articles he voiced his opinions on temperance, phrenology, utilitarianism, and other hobbies, and encouraged young contributors, among them Whittier and Poe. The latter remarked that Neal gave him "the very first words of encouragement I ever remember to have heard".
His appearance was striking: his frame was not large but he was finely built and his physical strength and agility were remarkable. At seventy-nine, he threw into the street a hoodlum who persisted in smoking in a horsecar. He was fearless, energetic, easily angered by injustice or insult, but was ordinarily kindly and courteous, sympathetic to children, and chivalrous toward women. He was always enthusiastic about something--a characteristic which proved both a strength and a weakness in his writing. He wrote too hastily and voluminously. Poe in the Southern Literary Messenger (February 1836) and Lowell in A Fable for Critics (1848) attest his strength and genius but lament his wastefulness and lack of restraint.
Connections
On October 12, 1828, he married Eleanor Hall, his cousin, by whom he had five children.