William Jewett Tenney (1814 at
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, United States. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and nort ...
– 20 September 1883, at
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...
) was an American author, editor and encyclopedist.
Life
Graduating from
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
in 1832 he studied medicine, but abandoned it for the law and, on being admitted to the bar, opened an office in New York. He then tried journalism on the editorial staff of the ''Journal of Commerce'', and contributed editorially to the ''Evening Post'', during 1841-43 and 1847-48.
In 1853 he entered the service of
D. Appleton & Company, publishers, as editor, and, in addition to a large amount of literary and critical work, began for them, in 1861, the compilation of the ''
Annual Cyclopædia'' which he continued till his death.
During a long residence at
Elizabeth, New Jersey
Elizabeth is a City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.[James Buchanan
James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He also served as the United States Secretary of State, secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvan ...]
's presidential administration. He became a convert to the Catholic faith and married, as his second wife,
Sarah Brownson, daughter of
Orestes A. Brownson.
Works
He indexed
T. H. Benton's "Abridgment of the Debates of Congress" and added a sixteenth volume to the series (New York 1857-60). He edited the "Queens of England" (1852); and wrote a "Military and Naval History of the Rebellion in the U. S." (1865), and a "Grammatical Analysis" (1866).
Notes
References
* The entry cites:
**
**
**
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tenney, William Jewett
1814 births
1883 deaths
American editors
Writers from Elizabeth, New Jersey
American naval historians
American male non-fiction writers
Yale University alumni
Historians from New Jersey