Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Godwin, Parke

GODWIN, Parke, editor, b. in Paterson, N. J., 25 Feb., 1816. His father was an officer in the war of 1812, and his grandfather a soldier of the Revolution. He was graduated at Princeton in 1834, studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Kentucky, but did not practise. He married the eldest daughter of William Cullen Bryant, and from 1837 till 1853, excepting one year, was connected with the New York “Evening Post.” In 1843 he issued the “Pathfinder,” a weekly, which was suspended after three months. He contributed many articles to the “Democratic Review,” in which he advocated reforms that were subsequently introduced into the constitution and code of New York. He was also editor of “Putnam's Monthly,” to which he contributed many literary and political articles, which were published in book-form, under the title “Political Essays” (New York, 1856). In 1865 he again became connected with the “Evening Post.” During the administration of President Polk he was deputy collector of New York. Subsequently he joined the Republican party and supported it by his speeches and writings. He is the author of “Popular View of the Doctrines of Charles Fourier” (New York, 1844); “Constructive Democracy”; “Vala, a Mythological Tale” (1851); “A Handbook of Universal Biography” (1851; new ed., entitled “Cyclopedia of Biography,” 1871); “History of France” (1st vol., 1861); “Out of the Past,” a volume of essays (1870); and edited a new edition of Bryant's prose and poetical writings, with a life (6 vols., New York, 1883-'4).