Author: Sinclair, William
Biography:
SINCLAIR, William (fl 1833-6)
Nothing has been discovered about his birth and death dates, nor about his family, but in the mid 1830s he was a bookseller at 71 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, specializing in Freethinking (Rationalist, Deist, etc.) literature. (He was also one of the publishers of Ethan Allen's Reason the Only Oracle of Man, 1836.) His two verse tragedies written to promote freedom of thought are sometimes attributed to Samuel B. H. Judah (q.v.) but Judah had long since stopped writing plays; the prefatory note in David and Uriah makes it clear that The Maid of Midian (and only that work) was by the same author; and the imprint of the 1836 3rd edition of The Maid of Midian cites Sinclair's name first in the list of dealers offering the play for sale, along with the newspaper office of The Temple of Reason in Philadelphia and two likeminded distributors in New York. It is possible that he was the William Sinclair (b 1808) born in Scotland who emigrated to Philadelphia and who in the 1850 Census was listed as a single man living in a rooming house, but the name is too common and connections are too few to be certain. (Hollis; findmypast.com 23 Sept. 2020) HJ