Author: Jones, James Athearn
Biography:
JONES, James Athearn (1791-1854: ANBO)
The son of a farmer, Ebenezer Jones, and his wife Susanna Athearn, he was born in Tisbury, in Martha's Vineyard MA, and raised on his grandfather's remote coastal farm, which he eventually inherited. A formative influence on his life was the woman who served as his nurse, a member of the local indigenous Gay Head tribe: the one work for which Jones is still generally remembered is a prose collection of legends, Tales of an Indian Camp (3 vols 1829), revised as Traditions of the North American Indians (1830). He had a basic literary education, supplemented by keen reading. In 1817 he married his cousin Avis Ahearn; they had no children. In the same year, he published two gothic fictions; other poems and novels followed. Jones studied law in New York City, where he practised for a few years and produced a digest of criminal cases; he also taught school and undertook some journalism. He spent about two years in England 1827-9, where he saw his book of Indian legends into print. After returning to the farm at Tisbury, he continued writing and editorial work. In the early 1850s he moved to Brooklyn NY, where he died of cholera. (ODNB 25 June 2019; Appleton) HJ