James Kirke Paulding - Important works, Sources

Writer and public official, born in Great Nine Partners (now Putnam Co), New York, USA. He had little formal schooling, but became a friend of Washington Irving and moved to New York City (c.1796) to live with Washington's brother, William Irving. He worked as a public official, and in 1807–8 he collaborated with Washington Irving on Salmagundi, a literary magazine. His public career included appointments as secretary of the board of navy commissioners under President James Madison (1815–23), navy agent for New York under President James Monroe (1824–38), and secretary of the navy in President Martin Van Buren's cabinet (1838–41). He is best known for his popular and humorous essays, his burlesques of the British, as in John Bull in America (1825), and novels, such as Westward Ho! (1832). In 1846 he retired and settled near Hyde Park, NY.

James Kirke Paulding (22 August 1778–6 April 1860) was a novelist and the United States Secretary of the Navy.

Born in the state of New York, the son of William Paulding, Paulding was chiefly self-educated. In the decade before Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper achieved popular success, Paulding experimented in every genre in an effort to forge a new American literature.

Among Paulding's Government positions were those of secretary to the Board of Navy Commissioners in 1815-23 and Naval Agent in New York in 1824-38.

Important works

1812 - The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan 1813 - The Lay of the Scottish Fiddle 1818 - The Backwoodsman 1820 - Salmagundi. Second Series 1822 - A Sketch of Old England by a New England Man 1823 - Koningsmarke, the Long Finne 1825 - John Bull in America, or the New Munchausen 1826 - The Merry Tales of the Three Wise Men of Gotham 1828 - The New Mirror for Travellers 1829 - Tales of the Good Woman, by a Doubtful Gentleman 1830 - Chronicles of the City of Gotham 1831 - The Dutchman's Fireside 1832 - Westward Ho! 1835 - Life of George Washington 1836 - View of Slavery in the United States 1837 - The Book of St. Nicholas 1838 - A Gift from Fairy Land 1846 - The Old Continental, or the Price of Liberty 1849 - The Puritan and his Daughter

Sources

This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). This article includes public domain text from the Naval Historical Center. This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

Preceded by: Mahlon Dickerson

United States Secretary of the Navy 1838–1841

Succeeded by: George E.