Background
James Otis Kaler was born on March 19, 1848 in Frankfort (now Winterport), United States. He was the son of James Otis, a hotel proprietor, and Maria Thompson Kaler.
(Calvert is thirteen when he sets forth for the New World ...)
Calvert is thirteen when he sets forth for the New World with his father and several servants. King Charles has given the family a tract of land westward from the settlements at Plymouth and Boston. The land Calvert inherits is full of surprises and amazing escapades.
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1910
James Otis Kaler was born on March 19, 1848 in Frankfort (now Winterport), United States. He was the son of James Otis, a hotel proprietor, and Maria Thompson Kaler.
James Otis Kaler attended public schools.
At age thirteen James joined the Boston Journal staff as a reporter, and at age sixteen, was sent to cover the Civil War. This experience nurtured Kaler’s love for adventure and ardent patriotism, attributes that heavily influenced his writing. According to records, he worked as a publicity man for a circus and wrote syndicated sermons for a Philadelphia publishing house. He worked for newspapers in New York and was on the editorial staff of Frank Leslie’s Boys’ and Girls’ Weekly.
Kaler’s experience writing for Frank Leslie influenced the formula, style, and subjects of his own books. The magazine featured stories in exotic settings and were imbued with Victorian moralism. They were extremely popular. Kaler also contributed to Harper’s Young People and St. Nicholas.
His signature work, Toby Tyler; or, Ten Weeks with a Circus, was first serialized in Harper’s Young People in 1880. It proved so popular that Harper’s published it in book form a year later. The story involves a young boy from a small coastal Maine town, modeled after Kaler’s own hometown. Like many of Kaler’s characters, Toby is materially poor, but an abundance of love surrounds him. An orphan, he lives with his foster parents, whom he calls Aunt Olive and Uncle Daniel. A sly candy man lures Toby into the circus, where Toby quickly learns that the circus is not all fun and games. Toby, in the remainder of the book, tries to escape and save up enough money to travel back to the home of his aunt and uncle. A meddlesome circus monkey, Mr. Stubbs, thwarts his plans. Toby steals Mr. Stubbs, but hunters accidentally shoot the monkey. Finally, Toby makes it home.
Kaler followed this success with a sequel, Mr. Stubbs’s Brother. This story takes place a year later in Toby’s life. He and his friends have produced their own circus, when Toby’s old circus comes to town. After Toby’s orphan friend, Abner, is seriously injured, all work together to entertain the ailing boy through his dying days.
Kaler enjoyed writing about exotic locations he visited, such as the Yucatan and Nicaragua. He also wrote sea stories, influenced by stories his father told. Now interested in education, Kaler wrote historical fiction with a didactic tone. Many of these stories take place at sea, others during wartime. An example is With Perry on Lake Erie: A Tale of 1812, a narration of the events that led to the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. Kaler quoted frequently from Benson J. Lossing’s Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812.
Kaler carefully minimized the violence in his books, though patriotism is abundant. The Life of John Paul Jones is a collection of quotations from the letters and manuscripts of Jones. Mary of Plymouth: A Story of the Pilgrim Settlement, one of the rare Kaler stories to feature a female character, recounts the Pilgrims’ first year in America. In 1906 he published four books for much younger readers under the pen name Amy Prentice. By 1898 Kaler had finished traveling and settled down to his secretary, Amy Louella Scammon; speculation has her authoring the Amy Prentice books. Kaler was named superintendent of schools for a new town, South Portland, Maine and nearby Cape Elizabeth. He continued writing.
Through the early twentieth century, Kaler enjoyed some success with his boys’ adventure tales, many of which still revolved around the sea and Maine’s coast.
Kaler revisited the circus theme with Found by the Circus. Joey Carter and his prim spinster Aunt Jane visit the "Great and Only Circus," where Aunt Jane, so fascinated with the circus, completely loses track of her nephew. Joey has fallen asleep under the seat of a monkey wagon, and he is transported to the next town. A circus showman straightens everything, but not before working Joey and his frantic aunt into the show.
Kaler was a popular lecturer on many topics. From 1900, Kaler produced four to twelve new books a year. New books were even published posthumously up to 1951, three years after his death.
(Calvert is thirteen when he sets forth for the New World ...)
1910James Otis Kaler was married to Amy Louella Scammon. They had two children - Stephen and Otis.