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=                      Elbridge_Streeter_Brooks                      =
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                            Introduction
======================================================================
Elbridge Streeter Brooks (April 14, 1846 - January 7, 1902) was an
American author, editor, and critic. He is chiefly remembered as an
author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction for children, much
of it on historical or patriotic subjects. His byline for most of his
writing was Elbridge S. Brooks.


                          Life and family
======================================================================
Brooks was born on April 14, 1846, in Lowell, Massachusetts, the son
of Universalist minister Elbridge Gerry Brooks and Martha Fowle
(Monroe) Brooks. He was raised in Bath, Maine, Lynn, Massachusetts and
New York City, where his father served in various churches. He was
educated in the public schools of Lynn and New York and entered the
Free Academy (later the College of the City of New York) in 1861,
which he left during his junior year to seek work. Later, in 1887, he
received an A.M. degree from Tufts College. As an adult he lived in
Philadelphia and New York City until removing to Somerville,
Massachusetts, his mother's home town, in 1887. He married, in 1870,
Hannah-Melissa Debaun of New York. They had two daughters, Geraldine
and Christine Brooks. Geraldine would also become an author, revising
some of her father's works for new editions as well as writing her own
works. Brooks died January 7, 1902, in Somerville and interred at
Mount Auburn Cemetery. He was survived by his wife and daughters,
though the younger, Christine, died the next year.


                               Career
======================================================================
Brooks took a job as a clerk with the publishing house of D. Appleton
& Company in 1865, and continued working professionally for
various publishers and magazines for the remainder of his life. He was
employed by Ford & Company, Sheldon & Company and Henry Holt
& Company in the early 1870s before joining E. Steiger &
Company in 1876 as head of its English educational and subscription
department. He went on to become a member of the staff of 'Publishers
Weekly'   in 1879, literary editor and dramatic critic for the
'Brooklyn Daily Times' from 1883-1885, associate editor of 'St.
Nicholas Magazine' from 1884-1887, and an editor for D. Lothrop &
Company from 1887 through his death, aside from the period of
1892-1895, when the firm went through financial difficulties and
reorganization. He edited the series 'The Story of the States' for
Lothrop. He was also editor of 'Wide Awake' from 1891-1893.

Brooks started writing fiction, poetry and plays for children in 1879,
his work appearing in 'St. Nicholas', 'Wide Awake', 'Harper's Young
People', 'Golden Days', and 'The Independent'. Much of this material
was afterwards collected into book form, published by D. Lothrop and
others. Brooks ultimately penned nearly seventy book-length works,
mostly drawn from history, and American history in particular; a
number of these, however, were revisions or expansions of earlier
works issued under new titles. Some of his patriotic works were issued
under the auspices of the Sons of the American Revolution and the
Daughters of the American Revolution. Brooks also wrote some material
for adult audiences, including one of his earliest books, a biography
of his own father.

He was a member of the Authors' Club of New York.


                             Reception
======================================================================
Brooks' works were dismissed by some critics as "machine-made," but
proved enduringly popular, some continuing to be reprinted many years
after his death.


Century Book series
=====================
*'The Century Book for Young Americans; Showing How a Party of Boys
and Girls Who Knew How to Use Their Eyes and Ears Found Out All About
the Government of the United States' (1894)
([https://archive.org/details/centurybookfory00revogoog Internet
Archive e-text])
*'The Century Book of Famous Americans; the Story of a Young People’s
Pilgrimage to Historic Homes' (1896)
([https://archive.org/details/centurybookfamo00broogoog Internet
Archive e-text])
*'The Century Book of the American Revolution' (1897)
([https://archive.org/details/centurybookamer01broogoog Internet
Archive e-text])
*'The Century Book of the American Colonies; the Story of the
Pilgrimage of a Party of Young People to the Sites of the Earliest
American Colonies' (1900)
([https://archive.org/details/centurybookamer00broogoog Internet
Archive e-text])


Biography
===========
*'The Life-Work of Elbridge Gerry Brooks, Minister in the Universalist
Church' (1881) ([https://archive.org/details/lifeworkelbridg00broogoog
Internet Archive e-text])
*'Historic Boys; Their Endeavors, Their Achievements and Their Times'
(1885) ([https://books.google.com/books?id=2f0TAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP13
Google Books e-text])
*'Historic Girls; Stories of Girls Who Have Influenced the History of
Their Times' (1887)
([https://books.google.com/books?id=QwoXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP13 Google
Books e-text of 1911 edition]) (Project Gutenberg
Entry:[https://gutenberg.org/etext/1574])
*'Young People of History; Their Endeavors, Their Achievements and
Their Times' (1914; omnibus edition of Historic Boys and Historic
Girls)
*'The True Story of Christopher Columbus, Called the Great Admiral'
(1892)  (Project Gutenberg Entry:[https://gutenberg.org/etext/1488])
*'Great Men's Sons; Who They Were, What They Did, and How They Turned
Out; a Glimpse at the Sons of the World's Mightiest Men from Socrates
to Napoleon' (1895)
([https://archive.org/details/greatmenssonswh00broogoog Internet
Archive e-text])
*'The Boy Life of Napoleon : Afterwards Emperor of the French' (1895)
*'The Story of Miriam of Magdala, Sometimes Called the Magdalen'
(1895)
*'The True Story of George Washington; Called the Father of His
Country' (1895)
([https://archive.org/details/truestorygeorge00broogoog Internet
Archive e-text])
*'The Inspiring History of George Washington, First President of the
United States' (1896)
*'The True Story of Abraham Lincoln, the American; Told for Boys and
Girls' (1896) ([https://archive.org/details/truestoryabraha01broogoog
Internet Archive e-text])
*'The True Story of U. S. Grant, the American Soldier, Told for Boys
and Girls' (1897)
*'True stories of great Americans for young Americans : telling in
simple language suited to boys and girls, the inspiring stories of the
lives of George Washington, John Paul Jones, Benjamin Franklin,
Patrick Henry, Robert E. Lee, George Peabody, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses
S. Grant, Jas. A. Garfield, Robert Fulton, Cyrus W. Field, Thos. A.
Edison' (1897)
([https://books.google.com/books?id=eLjQg_JFiboC&pg=PA9 Google
Books e-text])
*'The True Story of Benjamin Franklin, the American Statesman' (1898)
*'Historic Americans; Sketches of the Lives and Characters of Certain
Famous Americans Held Most in Reverence by the Boys and Girls of
America' (1899)
*'The True Story of Lafayette, Called the Friend of America' (1899)
*'The Heroic Life of Abraham Lincoln the Great Emancipator' (1902)
*'The Heroic Life of General George Washington, First President of the
United States' (1902)
*'The Heroic Life of General U.S. Grant : General of the Armies of the
United States' (1902)
*'The Heroic Life of John Paul Jones, the First Captain of the United
States Navy' (1902)


History
=========
*'Storied Holidays; a Cycle of Historic Red-Letter Days' (1887)
*'The Story of the American Indian; His Origin, Development, Decline
and Destiny' (1887)
([https://archive.org/details/storyamericanin00broogoog Internet
Archive e-text])
*'The Story of New York' (1888)
([https://books.google.com/books?id=BbUUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1889 Google
Books e-text])
*'The Story of the American Sailor in Active Service on Merchant
Vessel and Man-of-War' (1888)
([https://archive.org/details/storyamericansa01broogoog Internet
Archive e-text])
*'The Story of the American Soldier in War and Peace' (1889)
([https://archive.org/details/storyamericanso00broogoog Internet
Archive e-text])
*'The Story of the United States, Told for Young People' (1891)
*'The True Story of the United States of America; Told for Young
People' (1897)
*'The American Sailor; Being the Complete and Connected Story of the
Development and Deeds of the American Sailor on Merchant Vessel and
Man-of-War from the Discovery of America to 1900' (1899)
*'The American Soldier; Being the Story of the Fightingman of America,
From the Conquistador to Rough Rider; From 1492 to 1900' (1899)
*'The Story of Our War with Spain' (1899)
*'The Story of the Nineteenth Century of the Christian Era' (1900)
([https://archive.org/details/storynineteenth01broogoog Internet
Archive e-text])


Operetta
==========
*'David the Son of Jesse, or, The Peasant, the Princess, and the
Prophet; a Sacred Operetta in Two Parts' (with Ellsworth C. Phelps)
(1883) ([https://books.google.com/books?id=tQ0QAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA38
Google Books e-text])
*'A Dream of the Centuries, and Other Entertainments for Parlor and
Hall' (with others) (1889)
([https://archive.org/details/adreamcenturies00johngoog Internet
Archive e-text])
*'The land of Nod, an Operetta for Young Folks' (1928)


Memorial books
================
*'Longfellow Remembrance Book; a Memorial for the Poet’s
Reader-Friends' (1888)
*'Tennyson Remembrance Book; a Memorial for the Poet’s Reader Friends'
(1893)


Other
=======
*'In No-Man’s Land; a Wonder Story' (1885)
*'An aggressive Universalism : an address delivered before the New
York Universalist Club, February 18, 1886' (1886)
*'Chivalric Days; and the Boys and Girls Who Helped to Make Them'
(1886)
*'In Leisler’s Times; an Historical Story of Knickerbocker New York'
(1886) ([https://books.google.com/books?id=tggZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP9
Google Books e-text])
*'A Son of Issachar; a Romance of the Days of Messias' (1890)
*'Great Cities of the World' (1890)
*'Golden years : stories and poems' (1892)
*'Heroic Happenings Told in Verse and Story' (1893)
*'A Boy of the First Empire' (1895)
*'The Long Walls; an American Boy’s Adventures in Greece; a Story of
Digging and Discovery, Temples and Treasure' (with John Alden) (1896)
([https://books.google.com/books?id=hPEYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA260 Google
Books e-text])
*'Under the Tamaracks, or, A Summer with General Grant at the Thousand
Islands' (1896)
*'A Son of the Revolution; Being the Story of Young Tom Edwards,
Adventurer, and How He Labored for Liberty and Fought it Out With His
Conscience in the Days of Burr's Conspiracy' (1898)
*'Children all; a book of stories and verses for little people' (1898)
*'The Master of the Strong Hearts; a Story of Custer’s Last Rally'
(1898) ([https://archive.org/details/masterstronghea02broogoog
Internet Archive e-text of 1900 edition])
*'In Blue and White; the Adventures and Misadventures of Humphrey
VanDyne, Trooper in Washington’s Life-Guard' (1899)
([https://archive.org/details/inblueandwhitea00merrgoog Internet
Archive e-text])
*'On Wood Cove Island; or a Summer with Longfellow on the New England
Coast' (1899)
*'Stories of the Old Bay State' (1899)
([https://archive.org/details/storiesoldbayst03broogoog Internet
Archive e-text])
*'In defence of the flag; a boy’s adventures in Spain and the West
Indies during the battle year of our war with Spain' (1900)
*'The Godson of Lafayette; Being the Story of Young Joe Harvey, and
How He Found the Way to Duty in the Days of Webster and Jackson and
the Conspiracy of That American Adventurer Eleazer Williams Sometimes
Called “The False Dauphin”' (1900)
*'With Lawton and Roberts : a Boy’s Adventures in the Philippines and
the Transvaal' (1900)
([https://archive.org/details/withlawtonandro00broogoog Internet
Archive e-text])
*'Under the Allied Flags a Boy’s Adventures in the International War
against the Boxers and China' (1901)


                         General references
======================================================================
*"AUTHOR OF BOY STORIES DEAD," obituary in 'The Chicago Daily
Tribune,' January 8, 1902, page 4.
*Bowerman, Sarah G. "Elbridge Streeter Brooks," article in 'Dictionary
of American Biography'. American Council of Learned Societies,
1928-1936.
*"BROOKS--March 28," obituary of Christine Brooks in 'The New York
Times', April 5, 1903, page 17.
*"ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS," obituary in 'The New York Times', January 8,
1902, page 7.
*Johnson, Rossiter, ed. 'The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary
of Notable Americans: Volume I'. Boston: The Biographical Society,
1904.
*'Who's Who in America, a Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living
Men and Women of the United States, 1901-1902'. Chicago: A. N. Marquis
& Company.


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