William Jewett Tenney (1814 at
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...
– 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 and the county seat, seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County and the second largest city within the New Yo ...
) was an American author, editor and encyclopedist.
Life
Graduating from
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
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 and Co., 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
, he held several local public offices including that of collector of the port during President
James Buchanan
James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and repr ...
's 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
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{{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