Joseph Kirkland

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Joseph Kirkland
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Born7 January 1830  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Geneva   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Died29 April 1894  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg (aged 64)
Chicago   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Occupation Writer   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Parent(s)
Signature
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Joseph Kirkland (January 7, 1830 - April 29, 1894) [1] was an American novelist. Born in Geneva, New York, to educator William Kirkland and author Caroline Kirkland, he was a businessman in Chicago, then served in the Union Army during the Civil War, reaching the rank of major. He resigned his Union Army commission and moved to Tilton, Illinois, where he married Theodosia B. Wilkinson in 1863. In 1864 he founded the Midwestern literary periodical Prairie Chicken. [2] After the war he became a lawyer while also pursuing writing. He is best remembered as the author of two realistic novels of pioneer life in the Far West, Zury: The Meanest Man in Spring County (1887) and The McVeys. Other works are The Captain of Company K and The Story of Chicago. He was also the literary editor of the Chicago Tribune . Kirkland died in Chicago at the age of 64.

References

  1. "News and Notes (obituary)". The Literary World . XXV (15). Boston: 237. July 28, 1894.
  2. Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, Volume One: The Authors, Philip A. Greasley, General Editor, Indiana University Press, 2001, ISBN   0-253-33609-0

Wikisource-logo.svg  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature . London: J. M. Dent & Sons via Wikisource.