J. Ross Browne
J. Ross Browne was an Irish-born American writer and journalist, born on February 11, 1821, near Dublin. Emigrating to the United States with his family in 1833, Browne became a self-taught writer and sketch artist. His early career included reporting on politics and travels, which he documented in his accounts for Harper's Magazine. Notably, his maritime experiences led to the publication of "Etchings of a Whaling Cruise" in 1846, showcasing both his adventurous spirit and narrative talent. During the Gold Rush, he held various government positions, including work for the U.S. Treasury Department and serving as recording secretary of California's Constitutional Convention. He also penned travel literature inspired by his extensive journeys in Europe, the Near East, and the American West. Browne's literary contributions, characterized by observant and humorous prose, influenced notable contemporaries, including Herman Melville and Mark Twain. Despite falling into relative obscurity after his death on December 9, 1875, interest in his work has seen a revival in academic circles in recent decades.
On this Page
Subject Terms
J. Ross Browne
Writer
- Born: February 11, 1821
- Birthplace: Near Dublin, Ireland
- Died: December 9, 1875
- Place of death: Oakland, California
Biography
The third of four children, John Ross Browne, known for most of his life as J. Ross Browne, was born in Ireland, near Dublin, on February 11, 1921. His father, Thomas Egerton Browne, a journalist, published political satires that eventually led to his conviction and imprisonment for seditious libel, and the family emigrated to America in 1833. They settled in Louisville, Kentucky, where Thomas Browne opened a school for girls. With a few other boys, young J. Ross Browne studied in this school. He later spent a few months studying medicine, but was largely self- educated. Capable as a writer and sketch artist, he worked in his late teens as a newspaper reporter in Louisville and in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio. He formed an ambition to travel, and taught himself stenography so that he might be able to support himself in his travels. With this skill, he because a reporter in Washington and covered the United States Senate. Repelled by politics and attracted by travel, he signed on as a seaman on a whaler. The captain’s harsh discipline led him to leave the ship in Zanzibar, and he subsequently published accounts of his experiences in Harper’s Magazine. In 1846 these accounts were published by Harper’s as Etchings of a Whaling Cruise. Meanwhile, Browne had married Lucy Anna Mitchell in 1844; the couple was to have ten children, eight of whom survived to adulthood.
In 1845, J. Ross Browne obtained the first of several positions in the United States Treasury Department. In 1849, during the Gold Rush, he was assigned to a post in San Francisco. His voyage to California, enlivened by a mutiny and a call at Juan Feruandez Island off the coast of Chile, became the matter for more articles in Harper’s Magazine and another book, Crusoe’s Island (1864). As 1849 continued, Browne served as the recording secretary of California’s Constitutional Convention. Well paid, he indulged himself and his family with travel in Europe and the Near East, and these travels became the subject of Yusef (1853). Returning to the American West, he worked again for the Treasury Department and became an expert in mining and in Indian affairs in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Arizona. Some of his experiences in the West became the basis of Adventures in the Apache Country (1869). In 1868, J. Ross Browne was named ambassador to China, but he lasted less than a year in the position because of his outspoken disagreements with government policy. He returned to California as a businessman. He died in Oakland on December 9, 1875, of acute appendicitis. Browne was remembered as modest, good natured, and generous; as a writer he was observant, articulate, and often humorous. Etchings of a Whaling Cruise may well have influenced Herman Melville, who reviewed it in 1847; Yusef may have provided Mark Twain with a model for Innocents Abroad. Popular in their own time, J. Ross Browne’s works later fell into neglect, but in the second half of the twentieth century academic interest in them revived.