Background
Charles was born in New York City, New York, the son of the Reverend John Bristed and Magdalena Astor (eldest daughter of fur-trader John Jacob Astor and Sarah Todd).
Charles was born in New York City, New York, the son of the Reverend John Bristed and Magdalena Astor (eldest daughter of fur-trader John Jacob Astor and Sarah Todd).
Bachelor of Arts, Yale, 1839. Graduate Trinity College, Cambridge (England) University, 1845.
He was the first American to write a full-length defense of Americanisms. He amused himself contributing articles, poetical translations, critical papers on the classics, and sketches of society to various journals, and in 1849 edited "Selections from Catullus," for school use. In 1850 he published "Letters to the Honorary
Horace Mann," being a reply to some strictures upon the characters of Girard and Astor.
In 1852 a collection of his sketches on New York Society entitled "The Upper Ten Thousand," appeared in the Fraser Magazine. At the same time he published Five Years in an English University, in which he described the manners, customs, and mode of life but little understood in the United States.
Bristed exhibited in his writings a keen appreciation of men and books His wide scholarship makes his essays valuable, and marks his criticisms with the best qualities of a trained university manitoba
He also published many clever poetical translations from the classics.
In his later years he resided in Washington, District of Columbia He was a frequent contributor to the "Galaxy," under the pen-name "Carl Benson," and published "The Interference Theory of Governments," a book denunciatory of tariff and prohibitory liquor laws, and "Pieces of a Broken-down Critic."
He was one of the trustees of the Astor Library from its origin. He died in Washington, District of Columbia
Married Laura Brevoort, January 14, 1847. Married second, Grace Sedgwick, 1867.