Author: Neal, John
Biography:
NEAL, John (1793-1876: ANBO)
Neal was born in Falmouth (later Portland), Maine. His parents, Rachel (Hall) and John Neal, were Quakers; his father died a month after Neal and his twin sister were born. His schooling ended when he was twelve and he was apprenticed to a shopkeeper, but he left that job--and Maine--in 1808 and tried his hand at various kinds of work. After a failure in business he determined to study law and to train himself for a career as a writer. Between 1816 and 1823 he published five novels, a volume of poetry, a verse tragedy, and many articles for newspapers and periodicals; he was also called to the bar and established a successful legal practice in Baltimore. He spent 1823-7 in England, where he published another novel and wrote a series of articles for Blackwood's about 136 US writers (collected and published as American Writers in 1937). He returned to settle in Portland, where he maintained a law practice, founded one journal (The Yankee) and went on to edit others, published novels and short stories, and contributed to magazines such as Harper's and the Atlantic Monthly. He was a lifelong champion of women's rights. In 1828 he married his cousin Eleanor Hall, with whom he had five children. He died in Portland. (ANBO 11 May 2020) HJ