Author: Waln, Robert
Biography:
WALN, Robert (1794-1825: ancestry.com)
He was the eldest son in a large Quaker family of Philadelphia. His mother was Phebe (Lewis) Waln; his father was Robert Waln Sr., a merchant and Congressman. He had a good education--probably Quaker schools and private tutors--and read widely. He first published social satire in prose under the guise of a "Hermit in America" on a visit to Philadelphia (two series, 1819) and later his verse satires. The turning-point of his life came in 1819-20 when he spent four months in Canton on a trading journey for his father's business: though he did not learn Chinese, he made himself into an expert on the country by building on his first-hand experience with library research. In 1823-4 he published by subscription a comprehensive study of the history, culture, politics, and trade relations of the country, China. He was more celebrated in his time, however, for his work in 1823-4 as editor of three volumes of a multi-volume publication, Biographies of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, to which he himself contributed some entries; and as the author of a life of Lafayette (1825). He died of unknown causes, aged only thirty, at a hotel in Providence RI: death notices say "suddenly" or "after a short illness." He was buried in the Quaker Burial Ground in Providence. (ancestry.com 11 Dec. 2020; ANBO 11 Dec. 2020; Daily National Journal [Washington DC] 14 Jul. 1825)
Other Names:
- R. Waln