Jedediah Vincent Huntington
{{short description|American writer}}{{Infobox writer
| name = Jedediah Vincent Huntington
| birth_date = January 20, 1815
| birth_place = New York, New York
| death_date = March 10, 1862 (aged 47)
| death_place = Pau, France
| occupation = Novelist, clergyman
| caption = Oil on canvas portrait (c. 1850)
| image = Oil on Canvas portrait of Jedediah Vincent Huntington.jpg
| alma_mater = {{unbulleted list | New York University | University of Pennsylvania }}
}}
{{Inline|date=February 2024}}
Jedediah Vincent Huntington (1815 - 1862) was an American clergyman and novelist. He was born in New York City, the son of Benjamin Huntington Jr. and Faith Trumbull Huntington.
Biography
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Huntington received his early education at home and at an Episcopalian private school. He entered Yale College and later the University of New York, where he graduated in 1835. He then studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, received his degree in 1838, but never practiced his profession. During the three years following he was professor of mental philosophy in St. Paul's Episcopal school near Flushing, Long Island. At the same time studied for the ministry under William Augustus Muhlenberg. In 1841 he was ordained a minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church, resigned his professorship, and became rector of the Episcopal church at Middlebury, Vermont. At the end of five years he resigned because of doubts about his religious position, and went to Europe.
The next three years were spent mostly in England and in Rome. He left England apparently a firm believer in the Anglican theory of the "Via media". The authority of Rome outside the British possessions he readily accepted. Soon after his arrival in Rome, however, he became convinced that his duty lay in recognizing the exclusive authority of the Roman Catholic Church. On speaking of the subject to his wife, he was agreeably surprised to learn that she was of one mind with him. Accordingly, they were both received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1849.
Returning to the USA, he lectured before learned associations in several of the large cities. He became editor of the Metropolitan Magazine, a Catholic periodical published in Baltimore, and later edited The Leader published in St. Louis; each proved a failure. His life was, however, a literary life, and fairly successful. The last few years of his life were spent at Pau, in southern France, where he died of pulmonary tuberculosis at age 47.
Writings
His first publication was a book of verse. He made several translations from French into English, including Ségur's Short and Familiar Answers to Objections against Religion.
Huntington is best known as a writer of fiction. His novels were widely read and received considerable notice in the leading journals in America and England. The criticism was often harsh and at times justly deserved, especially in the case of his first novel Lady Alice and its sequel The Forest. One of his best works is Alban, or the History of a Young Puritan, which is practically the history of his own life. His last work, which is best known and which is the only one reprinted, is Rosemary, or Life and Death.
External links
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07564a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia article]
- {{cite CE1913 |wstitle=Jedediah Vincent Huntington |volume=7 |first=Matthew James |last=Flaherty}}
- {{Gutenberg author | id=38977| name=Jedediah Vincent Huntington}}
- {{Internet Archive author |sname=Jedediah Vincent Huntington}}
- [http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/jvhuntington/festival_system1843.html The Divine Institution and Use of the Festival System of the Church, by Jedediah Vincent Huntington (1843)]
- [https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.35175/ Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America, in the Years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814, Or, The First American Settlement on the Pacific (New York: Redfield, 1854), by Gabriel Franchère], translated by Huntington
- [https://archive.org/details/forestjedediah00huntrich The Forest, by J. V. Huntington] 1852 novel
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Category:Religious leaders from New York City
Category:New York University alumni
Category:Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni
Category:19th-century American Episcopal priests
Category:Anglican priest converts to Roman Catholicism
Category:American Roman Catholic writers
Category:19th-century American novelists
Category:19th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Category:Tuberculosis deaths in France
Category:American expatriates in France
Category:American male novelists
Category:Writers from New York City