Irving Bacheller
Irving Bacheller was an influential American writer known for his historical romances and vivid portrayals of rural life. Born in upstate New York in 1859, Bacheller was the sixth of seven children in a farming family. He pursued higher education at St. Lawrence University, graduating in 1882 before moving to New York City, where he became the drama editor for the Brooklyn Daily News. Bacheller played a key role in the literary scene of the late 19th century, founding the New York Syndicate Press and later Pocket Magazine, where he serialized works by acclaimed authors.
His most famous novel, *Eben Holden*, published during his career, tells the story of an orphan's friendship with a hired man in a pre-Civil War setting and resonated with readers, selling over 750,000 copies. Throughout his prolific writing career, Bacheller authored more than thirty novels, often incorporating themes of American ideals, patriotism, and individual strength. His formative experiences in rural New York profoundly shaped his literary voice, focusing on the lives of fictional characters reflective of his upbringing. Bacheller also penned three autobiographies in his later years, providing insights into his experiences and perspectives. He passed away in 1950 at the age of ninety, leaving behind a legacy of rich storytelling.
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Subject Terms
Irving Bacheller
Journalist
- Born: September 26, 1859
- Birthplace: Pierpont, New York
- Died: February 24, 1950
- Place of death: White Plains, New York
Biography
Perhaps it was destiny that Irving Addison Bacheller became a writer. His father, Sanford Paul Bacheller, and mother, Achsah Ann Buckland, named him after writers Joseph Addison and Washington Irving. The sixth of seven children, he grew up on a farm in upstate New York. The family moved to Canton, New York when Bacheller was thirteen. He attended Canton Academy, though he was drawn to the local pool hall. Bacheller earned his B.S. from St. Lawrence University in 1882.
Bacheller moved to New York City after graduation from university where he worked as drama editor for the Brooklyn Daily News. A meeting with English writer Joseph Hatton led to Hatton helping Bacheller to sell the serial rights to his book. He founded the New York Syndicate Press in 1894, and was central in selling serial rights for such authors as Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling. Bacheller was responsible for serializing Stephen Crane’s Red Badge of Courage. He later founded Pocket Magazine in 1895, publishing stories by famous authors whose rights Bacheller owned through syndicate. When Pocket Magazine folded in 1901, Bacheller began his most famous book, Eben Holden. Joseph Pulitzer offered him editorship of New York World’s Sunday edition, but Bacheller left to finish Eben Holden, a novel about country life as seen through the eyes of a farmhand. It chronicles an orphan’s friendship with a hired man in the pre-Civil War era and sold three- quarters of a million copies.
Bacheller satisfied America’s craving for heroes by writing historical romances and including notable figures such as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln, writing three volumes about the latter. He married Anna Detmar Schultz in 1883, who died in 1924. He then married Mary Elizabeth Sollace, who passed away in 1949. He had one adopted son, Paul. Bacheller’s formative years in upstate New York profoundly influenced his novels, which chronicled the stalwart lives of fictional characters from that area. His first-person narratives were generally set in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Rural New York is again the backdrop in In The Days of Poor Richard, a romantic novel set during the Revolutionary War. Bacheller wrote more than thirty novels, the majority of them historical romances. His works championed American ideals, patriotism, and strength of individual character. In his later years, he wrote three autobiographies: Opinions of a Cheerful Yankee, Coming up the Road, and From Stories of Memory. He died in 1950 of bronchopneumonia at the age of ninety.