Samuel Kettell

{{Short description|American author}}

Samuel Kettell (1800–1855) was an American writer.{{Cite book|title=Supplement to the Cyclopædia of American Literature|last=Duyckinck|first=Evert A.|author-link=Evert Augustus Duyckinck|publication-place=New York|publisher=Scribner|date=1866|pages=71–72|chapter=Samuel Kettell|hdl=2027/hvd.32044038434494?urlappend=%3Bseq=83 |chapter-url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044038434494?urlappend=%3Bseq=83}} He also wrote under the name "Sampson Short-and-fat".{{Cite book|title=Pseudonyms|author=Joseph F. Clarke|publisher=BCA|date=1977|page=149}}

He compiled Specimens of American Poetry, with Critical and Biographical Notices, the first comprehensive anthology of American poetry, which was published by Samuel Griswold Goodrich in 1829. The three volume collection included 188 poets, a historical introduction, and chronological listing of American poetry.{{Cite book|author=Daniel S. Burt.|title=The Chronology of American Literature: America's literary achievements from the colonial era to modern times|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|date=2004|isbn=978-0-618-16821-7}} The volumes came to be dubbed "Goodrich's Kettle of Poetry."Vanderbilt, Kermit. American Literature and the Academy, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986

From September 1847 to March 1848 Kettell edited Merry's Museum.Pflieger, Pat. American Children's Periodicals, 1789–1872 (Kindle Edition) Merrycoz Books, 2016