William Henry Hurlbert was an American journalist and author.
Background
Hurlbert was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1827. He was the son of Martin Luther Hurlbut and Margaret Ashburner (Morford) Hurlbut and half-brother of Stephen Augustus Hurlbut. The change in his surname was brought about by the error of an engraver in making some cards for him, and he liked the spelling, "Hurlbert, " so much that he retained it.
Education
Graduating at Harvard in 1847, he next entered the Harvard Divinity School, where he was graduated in 1849, then spent two years in study and travel in Europe.
Career
Returning to America, he entered the Unitarian ministry, but served only a short time, though during that period he wrote some hymns which were long in use. In 1852-53 he spent a year in the Harvard Law School. After visiting the West Indies, he published Gan-Eden or Pictures of Cuba (1854). In 1855 he became a writer on the staff of Putnam's Magazine and dramatic critic for the Albion, and in 1857 joined the New York Times.
His brilliant but erratic genius was manifested in many ways. It is said that he could work on two or three editorials at once, dashing off alternate pages of them to send to the typesetters. He wrote many poems, and a play of his, Americans in Paris; or A Game of Dominoes, was performed at Wallack's in 1858 and published the same year.
Having professed strong opposition to slavery, he was arrested while on a business trip in the South in 1861 and confined for a number of months in Richmond, but escaped in the summer of 1862, making his way on foot through the lines and to Washington. He now declared the Republican party to be a menace to the nation, and joined the staff of the New York World. In 1864 he published McClellan and the Conduct of the War, and took the stump for McClellan in the campaign of that year. He headed a group which purchased the New York Commercial Advertiser in 1864, but he and his associates could not agree, and the paper was sold in 1867 to Thurlow Weed.
In 1866 he visited Mexico; the following year, as the representative of the World, he attended the Paris Exposition and the Festival of St. Peter in Rome. In 1871 he was special correspondent for the World with the commission sent by President Grant to Santo Domingo. From 1876 to 1883 he was editor-in-chief of the World. After 1883 he spent most of his time in Europe, writing many essays and articles for British and American periodicals during those latter years. He endeared himself to British Tories by his book, Ireland Under Coercion (2 vols. , 1888) but, considering himself to have been insulted by a remark made by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Coleridge, he wrote in retort a book of 500 closely printed pages entitled, England Under Coercion (1893). A suit for breach of promise, which he won, nevertheless caused him to leave England in 1891. He died in Cadenabbia, Italy, with a warrant still out against him in London, for perjury in connection with the suit.