William Perry Fogg (27 July 1826 – 8 May 1909) was an American adventurer and author, as well as the inspiration for

Phileas Fogg Phileas Fogg ( ) is the protagonist in the 1872 Jules Verne novel '' Around the World in Eighty Days''. Inspirations for the character were the American entrepreneur George Francis Train and American writer and adventurer William Perry Fogg ...

in the 1873 novel ''

Around the World in 80 Days ''Around the World in Eighty Days'' () is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in French in 1872. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate ...

''.

Background

Fogg was born in

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, the son of Josiah Fogg and Hannah ''née'' Pecker. As a child, his family moved to

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

where he became an early member and President of the New England Society which had been founded to encourage unity among the descendants of New England pioneers. In 1852 he married Mary Ann Gould with whom he had two daughters: Annie and Helen. In Cleveland, Fogg set himself up as a seller of chinaware and became interested in the day-to-day running of the city, eventually being appointed to the Board of Commissioners in 1866. Along with Herman M. Chapin, the mayor of Cleveland, Fogg and the other commissioners wrote the Metropolitan Police Act of 1866. In 1868 Fogg began what he became most famous for, his travels around the world during which he became one of the first Americans to travel through the interior of Japan.William Perry Fogg - Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
-

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...

From 1870 ''

The Cleveland Leader ''The Cleveland Leader'' was a newspaper published in Cleveland from 1854 to 1917. History The ''Cleveland Leader'' was created in 1854 by Edwin Cowles, who merged a variety of abolitionist, pre-Republican Party titles under the ''Leader''. Fr ...

'' publicised his travels by publishing the letters he wrote home, which were later privately published in 1872 as ''Round the World: Letters from Japan, China, India and Egypt'' in which he described traveling by train from Cleveland to San Francisco via Salt Lake City where he had an interview with

Brigham Young Brigham Young ( ; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second President of the Church (LDS Church), president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until h ...

following which he boarded a Pacific Mail Steamer from San Francisco to Japan and then visited China (including Hong Kong),

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

Malacca Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...

and

Penang Penang is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia along the Strait of Malacca. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay Peninsula. Th ...

. He then moved on to India before traveling from

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

to Suez where he took the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

to Cairo where he saw the Pyramids.William Perry Fogg, ''Round the World: Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt'', Privately published in Cleveland, Ohio 1872 - Harvard Art Museums Collection
/ref> His second book ''Arabistan, or The Land of the Arabian Nights'' (England, 1872), covered his travels through Egypt, Arabia and Persia to Baghdad. His last book was the revised American edition of ''Land of the Arabian Nights''. On his return to the United States, Fogg and the lawyer Richard C. Parsons bought the Herald Publishing Co. in 1877. When this failed Parsons was forced to return to his legal practice while Fogg resumed his international travels. On his final return to the United States Fogg lived in

Roselle, New Jersey Roselle ( ) is a borough located in Union County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 22,695, an increase of 1,610 (+7.6%) from the 2010 census count of 21,085, which in turn ref ...

from 1901–08 and then in Morris Plains for the last year of his life.

References

External links

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Fogg's Passport Application (1873) - NARA M1372. Images of handwritten letters and application forms for U.S. passports, 1795-1905Complete copy of "Round the world." Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt. by Fogg, Wm. Perry (William Perry), b. 1826. Publication date: 1872. Hosted on the Internet Archive.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fogg, William Perry 1826 births 1909 deaths People from Exeter, New Hampshire Writers from Cleveland People from Roselle, New Jersey People from Morris Plains, New Jersey 19th-century American explorers American male non-fiction writers 19th-century American non-fiction writers Jules Verne Around the World in Eighty Days