Charles Nordhoff (1830-1901) was an American journalist, descriptive and miscellaneous writer. He was born in Erwitte, Germany (Prussia) in 1830, and emigrated to the United States in 1845. He was educated in Cincinnati, and was for nine years at sea, in the navy and merchant service; from 1853 to 1857 in various newspaper offices; was then employed editorially by the Harpers (1861), and for the next ten years on the staff of the New York Evening Post. From 1871 to 1873 Nordhoff traveled in California and visited Hawaii. He then became Washington correspondent of the New York Herald. His most widely known books are Communistic Societies of The United States, and California for Health, Pleasure and Residence. He was a New York journalist for many years. The town of Ojai, California was named for him originally. It was changed due to anti-German sentiment of the World War I era. Nordhoff died in California in July, 1901.
He was the father of Walter Nordhoff, author of The Journey of the Flame, penned under the name "Antonio de Fierro Blanco".
He was the grandfather of Charles Bernard Nordhoff, co-author of Mutiny on the Bounty.
Nordhoff Street, in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, is named in his honor.