Charles Frederick Briggs

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Charles Frederick Briggs

Born 1804
Nantucket, Massachusetts
Died 1877
New York City

Charles Frederick Briggs (1804-1877), also called C. F. Briggs, was an American journalist and author, born in Nantucket, Massachusetts. He was also known under the pseudonym "Harry Franco", having written The Adventures of Harry Franco in 1839, which was followed by a series of works dealing more or less humorously with life in New York City.

[edit] Biography

Briggs had been a sailor in Nantucket, Massachusetts then a wholesale grocer. When his novel The Adventures of Harry Franco was suddenly successful, he pursued a career in journalism.[1]

In 1839, he published The Adventures of Harry Franco, a humorous adventure story which was an immediate success, leading to even his friends nicknaming him "Franco", much to his dismay.[2]

Briggs founded the Copyright Club in 1843. The organization sought to spread awareness of the need for international copyright law, though Briggs left the Club when a magazine named Centurion "contrived to monopolize all the credit".[3]

Briggs started the Broadway Journal in 1844 in New York City. He handled editorial duties and solicited for publications while his business partner, former schoolteacher John Bisco, handled publishing and financial concerns.[1] In December of that year, James Russell Lowell wrote to Briggs to recommend Edgar Allan Poe for a job at the new magazine. Poe became associate editor of the publication in January 1845 and co-editor a month later, also becoming one-third owner.[4] Though Poe was a one-third owner of the journal, Briggs never considered him a partner but "only an assistant".[5] Poe called Briggs "grossly uneducated" and said that he "has never composed in his life three consecutive sentences of grammatical English."[6] In June of 1845, Briggs resigned due to financial difficulties and, in October, Bisco sold his part of the magazine to Poe for $50 (Poe paid with a note endorsed by Horace Greeley).[7] The magazine's final publication was dated January 3, 1846.

C. F. Briggs later worked as editor for several other publications including Holden's Dollar Magazine[8] and Putnam's Magazine (1853-1856) in connection with George William Curtis and Parke Godwin. Later he served on the staff of the Times , the Evening Mirror, the Brooklyn Union, and, finally, the Independent.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991. p. 243. ISBN 0060923318
  2. ^ Miller, Perry. The Raven and the Whale: The War of Words and Wits in the Era of Poe and Melville. New York: Harvest Book, 1956: 47.
  3. ^ Miller, Perry. The Raven and the Whale: The War of Words and Wits in the Era of Poe and Melville. New York: Harvest Book, 1956: 175.
  4. ^ Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. Cooper Square Press, 1992. p. 169
  5. ^ Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991. p. 244. ISBN 0060923318
  6. ^ Miller, Perry. The Raven and the Whale: The War of Words and Wits in the Era of Poe and Melville. New York: Harvest Book, 1956: 156.
  7. ^ Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. Checkmark Books, 2001: pp. 27-28.
  8. ^ Bayless, Joy. Rufus Wilmot Griswold: Poe's Literary Executor. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1943. p. 201
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