Charles Astor Bristed
{{Short description|American scholar and author (1820–1874)}}
{{infobox person
| image = Charles_Astor_Bristed_-_Brady-Handy.jpg
| name =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1820|10|06}}
| birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1874|01|14|1820|10|06}}
| death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S.
| education =
| alma_mater = Yale College
Trinity College, Cambridge
| known_for =
| occupation = Scholar, author
| spouse = {{plainlist|
- {{marriage|Laura Whetten Brevoort
|1847|1861|reason=her death}} - {{marriage|Grace Ashburner Sedgwick
|1867|1874}}
}}
| children = 2
| parents = John Bristed
Magdalena Astor
| family = Astor family
}}
Charles Astor Bristed (October 6, 1820 – January 14, 1874) was an American scholar and author, sometimes writing under the pen name Carl Benson.Haynes, John Edward. Pseudonyms of Authors: Including Anonyms and Initialisms. New York, 1882. He was the first American to write a full-length defense of Americanisms and is the earliest known person to use the term "conspiracy theory".{{cite news |last1=Bristed |first1=C. A. |title=English Insincerity on the Slavery Question. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96772461/first-use-of-conspiracy-theory-by/ |access-date=2 March 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=11 January 1863 |pages=3}}
Biography
Charles was born in New York City, New York, the son of the Reverend John Bristed, an Episcopal clergyman from a New England family, and Magdalena Astor.{{cite news|last1=Miller|first1=Tom|title=Daytonian in Manhattan: The Lost Astor Estate "Hellgate" 87th and East End Ave|url=https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-lost-astor-estate-hellgate-87th-and.html|accessdate=30 April 2018|work=Daytonian in Manhattan|date=27 July 2015}} After his mother's death in 1832, Charles went to live his with grandparents, fur-trader John Jacob Astor and Sarah Todd at their home, "Hellgate" where many famous writers of the day, including Washington Irving and Fitz-Greene Halleck, visited. His mother was the eldest child of John Jacob Astor and his maternal uncle was William Backhouse Astor Sr.{{cite web|title=Bristed, Charles Astor (1820-1874) {{!}} The Vault at Pfaff's|url=https://pfaffs.web.lehigh.edu/node/54204|website=pfaffs.web.lehigh.edu|publisher=The Vault at Pfaff's An Archive of Art and Literature by the Bohemians of Antebellum New York|accessdate=30 April 2018}}
He graduated from Yale College in 1839 with honors, and from Trinity College, Cambridge, England, in 1845, taking numerous prizes and being made a foundation scholar of the college.{{acad|id=BRST840CA|name=Bristed, Charles
Career
He returned to the United States in 1847. Bristed amused himself by contributing articles, poetical translations, critical papers on the classics, and sketches of society to various journals, and in 1849 edited Selections from Catullus, for school use. In 1850, he published "Letters to the Hon. Horace Mann", being a reply to some strictures upon the characters of Girard and Astor. In 1852, a collection of his sketches on New York Society entitled "The Upper Ten Thousand", appeared in the Fraser Magazine. At the same time, he published Five Years in an English University, in which he described the manners, customs, and mode of life but little understood in the United States.
Bristed exhibited in his writings a keen appreciation of men and books.Bowerman, Sarah G. "Charles Astor Bristed." Dictionary of American Biography. Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale, 2006. http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC His wide scholarship makes his essays valuable and marks his criticisms with the best qualities of a trained university man. He also published many clever poetical translations from the classics. In his later years, Bristed resided in Washington, D.C. He was a frequent contributor to the Galaxy under the pen-name "Carl Benson", and published The Interference Theory of Governments, a book denunciatory of tariff and prohibitory liquor laws, and Pieces of a Broken-down Critic. Bristed was also one of the trustees of the Astor Library from its founding.
He made the earliest known use of the term "conspiracy theory", in a letter to the editor published in The New York Times on January 11, 1863. Bristed used it to refer to claims that British aristocrats were intentionally weakening the United States during the American Civil War in order to advance their financial interests.
Personal life
Upon his return to New York in 1847, Bristed married his first wife, Laura Whetten Brevoort (1823–1861), sister of James Carson Brevoort.Clarke, Robert Gordon. [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rclarke/page1/brevoort.htm Early New Netherlands Settlers]. Retrieved on May 8, 2014.
After his first wife's untimely death of heart disease,{{cite news|title=Died. BRISTED|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1861/08/24/news/died.html|accessdate=30 April 2018|work=The New York Times|date=24 August 1861}} he married Grace Ashburner Sedgwick (1833–1897), the daughter of Charles Sedgwick and Elizabeth Buckminster Dwight, by whom he had two sons and a daughter:{{cite book|title=The World Almanac and Book of Facts|date=1911|publisher=Press Publishing Company (The New York World)|page=523|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vuM-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA523|accessdate=30 April 2018|language=en}}
- John Jacob Astor Bristed (1847–1880),{{cite web|last1=Gertz|first1=Janet Elaine|title=Guide to the Charles Astor Bristed, Jr. Papers|url=https://drs.library.yale.edu/HLTransformer/HLTransServlet?stylename=yul.ead2002.xhtml.xsl&pid=mssa:ms.0960&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes|website=library.yale.edu|publisher=Sterling Memorial Library Yale University Library|accessdate=30 April 2018|language=English}}{{Dead link|date=November 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} who died in his 32nd year.{{cite news|title=DIED. BRISTED|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1880/06/29/archives/obituary-2-no-title.html|accessdate=30 April 2018|work=The New York Times|date=29 June 1880}}
- Charles Astor Bristed, Jr. (1869–1936){{cite news|title=CHARLES A. BRISTED DIES AT THE OPERA; Member of an Old' New-York Family Is Stricken in Box at the Metropolitan, HE WAS EDUCATED ABROAD His Grandmother Was Magdalen Astor, Eldest Child of the First John Jacob Astor|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1936/02/11/archives/gharles-a-bristed-dies-at-the-opera-member-of-an-old-newyork-family.html|accessdate=30 April 2018|work=The New York Times|date=11 February 1936}}
- Mary Rosa Donnelly (1866–1931) - Married in 1894
- Clementina Hill (1880–1958) - Married in 1932.
- Cecilia Bristed, an adopted daughter{{cite news|title=Charles Astor Bristed's Will.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1874/02/17/archives/charles-astor-bristeds-will.html|accessdate=30 April 2018|work=The New York Times|date=17 February 1874}} who inherited most of the estate of her brother, John.{{cite news|title=Brilliant Promises Not Kept.; the Unproductive Life of the Late John Jacob Astor Bristed.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1881/01/23/archives/brilliant-promises-not-kept-the-unproductive-life-of-the-late-john.html|accessdate=30 April 2018|work=The New York Times|date=January 23, 1881}}
Bristed died in Washington, D.C., on January 14, 1874.{{cite news|title=The Late Charles Astor Bristed.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1874/01/16/archives/the-late-charles-astor-bristed.html|accessdate=30 April 2018|work=The New York Times|date=January 16, 1874}}The National Cyclopædia of American Biography, Volume 6. New York: James T. White & Company (1929) 366. His funeral was held in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.{{cite news|title=Funeral of the Late Charles Astor Bristed.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1874/01/18/archives/funeral-of-the-late-charles-astor-bristed.html|accessdate=30 April 2018|work=The New York Times|date=January 18, 1874}}
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{Wikisource author-inline}}
- {{Commonscat-inline}}
- {{Internet Archive author |sname=Charles Astor Bristed}}
- {{Librivox author |id=10665}}
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{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bristed, Charles Astor}}
Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge