Hezekiah Butterworth
Hezekiah Butterworth (1839–1905) was an American author and poet known primarily for his influential works aimed at young readers. Born in Warren, Rhode Island, he grew up on a family farm but found solace in reading and writing, eventually turning his passion into a career. Butterworth gained recognition for his contributions to religious magazines before joining the staff of the popular youth publication, Youth's Companion, where he served as assistant editor for over twenty years.
His literary journey included the creation of the "Zigzag Journeys" series, which introduced young audiences to various cultures and histories through the adventures of a teacher guiding students in exotic locations. Notably, although he had not traveled abroad at the outset, the success of his books eventually enabled him to explore these places firsthand. Beyond the Zigzag series, Butterworth authored several other works, including biographies and historical narratives for children. Despite his popularity during his lifetime, he passed away in relative obscurity, leaving a legacy that reflected his commitment to education and storytelling. Butterworth's life and writings exemplify the 19th-century American literary landscape focused on youth and moral education.
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Hezekiah Butterworth
Writer
- Born: December 22, 1839
- Birthplace: Warren, Rhode Island
- Died: September 5, 1905
- Place of death: Warren, Rhode Island
Biography
Hezekiah Butterworth was born December 22, 1839, in Warren, Rhode Island, the son of Gardiner M. and Susan Ritchie Butterworth. One of six children, he grew up on the family farm but seems to have disliked the tedium of farm life, preferring to read instead. He was also inspired by ghost stories he heard from an aunt, and as a young man began publishing pieces in religious magazines.
Thanks to the money he earned from writing, Butterworth attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and subsequently settled in Boston. There, in 1870, he joined the staff of Youth’s Companion, then under the editorship of Daniel Sharp Ford. Butterworth became assistant editor of the magazine in 1871 and remained on the magazine’s staff for more than two decades. At the same time, he wrote dozens of books, eventually averaging two per year. The first of these seems to have been the 1872 work Sunday School Concert Book: A Collection of Twelve Educational Exercises Based on Selections from the Bible. Three years later he published The Story of the Hymns: Or, Hymns That Have a History, an Account of the Origin of Hymns of Personal Religious Experience, a volume that won the George Wood Gold Medal from the American Tract Society.
A turning point in Butterworth’s life came in 1880. That year he was approached by Boston publisher Estes & Lauriat to write a series of educational children’s works modeled on Voyages en Zigzag by French writer Rodolphe Toepffer. Butterworth agreed to the proposal and began work immediately, turning out Zigzag Journeys in Europe: Vacation Rambles in Historic Lands the same year. The Zigzag books recounted the adventures of a teacher leading a small group of students through a foreign land, a plot device that allowed Butterworth, through the character of the teacher, to lecture informally on a particular country’s history, folklore, architecture, and other aspects of its culture. The books’ gentle didacticism went down easily with young readers and their parents, and their many exotic illustrations proved highly popular.
Interestingly enough, Butterworth had not traveled beyond the shores of the United States when Zigzag Journeys in Europe appeared, although the success of his travelogue now made such travel possible. As a result, the details of his subsequent Zigzag books—which took his young readers to Greece, Eastern and Northern Europe, Russia, Australia, the west coast of the United States, and other places—were more accurate. Butterworth also wrote many other books. In the Boyhood of Lincoln: A Tale of the Tunker Schoolmaster and the Times of Black Hawk was a heavily fictionalized biography for young readers, and Young Folks’ History of Boston was the first of many histories for the same audience.
Although forgotten today, Butterworth was one of the most popular writers of his time. He made a lot of money from his writing but never married, giving much of his money to friends and to various social causes. Frequently ill toward the end of his life, he died in his brother’s house in Warren on September 5, 1905.