Nathaniel Stephenson

July 10, 1867 (age 67)

Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

Stephenson taught one session (1891 - 92) in the English department of the State University of Iowa and had worked (1893 - 95) as a reporter and editorial writer on the Cincinnati Daily Tribune. In 1898 he returned to the Tribune, then known as the Commercial Tribune, as literary editor, but this connection was terminated two years later, possibly because he intended to devote himself to a career of independent writing. In 1902, however, under the influence of Lancelot M. Harris, one of his former Indiana colleagues who was then teaching at the College of Charleston, he decided to accept the professorship of history and economics in the latter institution, and, after a year spent in recruiting his health, he undertook the task of teaching both European and American history as well as certain introductory courses in economics and political science. Later, for a brief period (1919 - 20), he served as acting president of the college. In one of his later works (An Autobiography of Abraham Lincoln) Stephenson acknowledged an indebtedness to his Harvard teacher, Albert Bushnell Hart, for training in historical method, but, with the exception of a novel, They That Took the Sword (1901), dealing with the Civil War period in Cincinnati, his early writings do not reveal any interest in history per se. Two novels, The Beautiful Mrs. Moulton (1902) and Eleanor Dayton (1903), and a critical essay, The Spiritual Drama in the Life of Thackeray (1913), were concerned with the psychological and esthetic, rather than the materialistic, forces which govern human conduct. Indeed, it may be said that in finally turning to historical writing he was seeking primarily a vehicle better suited to his ability to express these humanistic interests. In 1920 he was invited to lecture at Yale University. He returned the following year to the College of Charleston, but in 1922 he accepted the position of editor of the Chronicles of America Photoplays which for a time permitted him also to teach at Columbia University. His ashes were taken to Summerville, South Carolina, for burial.

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The Spiritual Drama in the Life of Thackeray (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from The Spiritual Drama in the Life of Thackeray...)

Lincoln; An Account of his Personal Life, Especially of its Springs of Action as Revealed and Deepened by the Ordeal of War

Lincoln: An Account of His Personal Life

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

A School History of the United States (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from A School History of the United States This ...)

Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln, An Account of His Personal Life, Especially of Its Springs of Action as Revealed and Deepened by the Ordeal of War

(Arguably the most written-about man, from the most writte...)

Abraham Lincoln: An Account of His Personal Life: Especially of Its Springs of Action as Revealed and Deepened by the Ordeal of War

(Books for All Kinds of Readers. Read HowYouWant offers th...)

The Spiritual Darama in The Life of Thackeray

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

Lincoln And Booth: Biographies Of Two Men Whose Lives Traveled Their Collision Course Through History -- Lincoln: By Nathaniel Wright Stephenson -- ... Wilkes Booth: By By George Alfred Townsend

(LINCOLN AND BOOTH – two men on a collision course, a fate...)

Lincoln: An Account of His Personal Life, Especially of Its Springs of Action As Revealed and Deepened by the Ordeal of War

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

Nelson W. Aldrich, a leader in American politics (Kennikat Press scholarly reprints. Series in American history and culture in the nineteenth century)

Texas and the Mexican War: A Chronicle of the Winning of the Southwest - War College Series

(This is a curated and comprehensive collection of the mos...)

The Day of the Confederacy; a chronicle of the embattled South

They That Took the Sword

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

Texas and the Mexican War: A Chronicle of the Winning of the Southwest

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

The Day of the Confederacy

(The day of the confederacy. A chronicle of the embattled ...)

Eleanor Dayton

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

Nathaniel Wright Stephenson

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educator historian journalist writer

Background

Nathaniel was born on July 10, 1867 in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, a son of Reuben Henry and Louisa (Wright) Stephenson, descendants of early settlers who came chiefly from New England.

Education

Prevented by financial difficulties from entering college until his twenty-first year, young Stephenson spent one year at the University of Cincinnati, then two years at Harvard, but it was 1896 before he was able to complete the requirements for the bachelor's degree at Indiana University, where, at the time, he was filling an appointment (1895 - 97) as instructor in English.

Career

Stephenson taught one session (1891 - 92) in the English department of the State University of Iowa and had worked (1893 - 95) as a reporter and editorial writer on the Cincinnati Daily Tribune.

In 1898 he returned to the Tribune, then known as the Commercial Tribune, as literary editor, but this connection was terminated two years later, possibly because he intended to devote himself to a career of independent writing.

In 1902, however, under the influence of Lancelot M. Harris, one of his former Indiana colleagues who was then teaching at the College of Charleston, he decided to accept the professorship of history and economics in the latter institution, and, after a year spent in recruiting his health, he undertook the task of teaching both European and American history as well as certain introductory courses in economics and political science.

Later, for a brief period (1919 - 20), he served as acting president of the college. In one of his later works (An Autobiography of Abraham Lincoln) Stephenson acknowledged an indebtedness to his Harvard teacher, Albert Bushnell Hart, for training in historical method, but, with the exception of a novel, They That Took the Sword (1901), dealing with the Civil War period in Cincinnati, his early writings do not reveal any interest in history per se. Two novels, The Beautiful Mrs. Moulton (1902) and Eleanor Dayton (1903), and a critical essay, The Spiritual Drama in the Life of Thackeray (1913), were concerned with the psychological and esthetic, rather than the materialistic, forces which govern human conduct. Indeed, it may be said that in finally turning to historical writing he was seeking primarily a vehicle better suited to his ability to express these humanistic interests.

In 1920 he was invited to lecture at Yale University. He returned the following year to the College of Charleston, but in 1922 he accepted the position of editor of the Chronicles of America Photoplays which for a time permitted him also to teach at Columbia University.

His ashes were taken to Summerville, South Carolina, for burial.

Achievements

In addition to numerous articles prepared for historical journals Nathaniel Wright Stephenson was the author of three famous textbooks: An American History (1913) for high schools, A School History of the United States (1921) for the grammar grades, and A History of the American People (1934) for college students. History brought Stephenson the recognition which he had not succeeded in gaining through imaginative writing.