Historical Event Timeline
1842


Samuel G. Goodrich

Samuel Griswold Goodrich Literary Icon
In the history of 19th century American Children’s Literature, the writings of Samuel Griswold Goodrich (1793-1860) are acknowledged with bibliographic prominence. An accomplished grammarian and wordsmith, largely self-taught, Goodrich began his literary métier while still in his teen years. He left his home in Ridgefield, Connecticut and moved to the city of Hartford. In that setting, he established himself as a bookseller and publisher. In that same location, he began writing books under the pseudonym of Peter Parley. His career flourished and soon after he moved to Boston, Massachusetts. In Boston, he published many important works of children’s literature. The emphasis of these works often focused on the prospect of instilling worthy civic values to his formative audience.
One of the most successful of these books dedicated to that intention was The Young American: or Book of Government and Law. In this text, Parley instructs his readers in the classical genesis of the legal precedents of western democratic government. Published in 1842, this book would travel with New England missionaries to Hawaii. It was indicative of the type of writing that the same group of missionaries would have used to inculcate an understanding of United States literary legal precedents. This legacy of educational progress would afford Hawaiians insight to and an appreciation for the democratic principles that were employed in the creation of their constitution.
Another facet of Goodrich’s remarkable career focused attention to alleviating the plight of young authors endeavoring to be published in the early stages of their profession. To that end, he founded and edited a journal called The Token. This journal helped to launch the literary careers of a number of outstanding 19th century authors. They included Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Paul Revere’s Ride, Evangeline and Song of Hiawatha) and Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables). Samuel Goodrich’s bibliographic legacy is both distinguished and extensive; however, it isn’t the only area of great achievement that he obtained in his lifetime. He was elected to Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1836 and to the Massachusetts Senate in 1837. President Millard Fillmore awarded him a consulship to Paris. Ever enterprising regarding publishing 2 projects, Goodrich used his time in Paris to have several of his works translated in French. Ending his stay in France in 1855, he was presented with a commemorative medal for service to the United States government. While Samuel Griswold Goodrich had many milestones in his life, some people feel that one of the most glowing tributes to him come in the form of a reference to Peter Parley in James Joyce’s internationally acclaimed novel Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Selected Bibliography Goodrich, Samuel Griswold. The Young American: or Book of Government and Law. New York: Mark H. Newman and Co., 1847. Tate, Merze. The Sandwich Islands Missionaries Create a Literature. Church History. Vol. 31, No. 2. Oreland, Pennsylvania: June 1962, pp. 182- 202. The Missionary Album: Sesquicentennial Edition 1820-1970. Honolulu: Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society, 1969.
Peter Salter Research Historian RIHiUSA