User:LaurentianShield/sandbox/James Hall (writer)

James Hall
James Hall
Treasurer of Illinois
	In office; 1827–1831
Preceded by	Abner Field
Succeeded by	John Dement
Personal details
Born	August 19, 1793; Philadelphia
Died	July 5, 1868 (aged 74); Loveland, Ohio

James Hall (August 19, 1793 - July 5, 1868) was a United States judge and man of letters. He has been called a literary pioneer of the Midwestern United States.^[1]

Personal and professional life[edit]

Early life and military career[edit]

Hall was born at Philadelphia. After studying law for some time, in 1812 he joined the United States Army. In the war with Great Britain, he distinguished himself in engagements at Lundy’s Lane and Fort Erie. At the end of the war, he accompanied an expedition against Algiers, but in 1818 he resigned his commission, and continued the study of law at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Illinois[edit]

In 1820, Hall moved to Shawneetown, Illinois, where he commenced practice at the bar and also edited the Illinois Gazette. Soon after he was appointed public prosecutor of the circuit, and in 1824 state circuit judge. In 1827 he became state treasurer, and held that office till 1831, but he continued at the same time his legal practice and also edited the Illinois Intelligencer. Subsequently he became editor of the Western Souvenir, an annual publication, and of the Illinois Monthly Magazine, afterwards the Western Monthly Magazine. He died in Loveland, Ohio.^[2]

The legend of Hugh Glass[edit]

Hall was the first to commit the legend of Hugh Glass to print, in what became a steady stream of Glass literature, up until the present day (see The Revenant). Although the details of how and when Hall first encountered the Glass story are murky, it was not long after the event in question (Glass's encounter with a grizzly 1823) that Hall published the story in The Port Folio (1825), as one letter of several otherwise unrelated letters about his journey to Shawneetown.^[3] Hall's letters were republished as Letters from the West in London in 1828, but Hall did not want the same book published in the United States.

Cincinnati, Ohio[edit]

After losing the State Treasurer appointment, Hall decided to move to Cincinnati, where he hoped to find a more nurturing environment for his love of writing. He worked as a lawyer, write, publisher and eventually as a banker for the Commercial Bank.

Hall is widely recognized as a pioneer in western (trans-Appalachian) literature. Aside from being a publisher, he was a prolific writer in fictional prose, poetry, and non-fiction. He was also a promoter and popularizer of other western writers. It was in Cincinnati where this literary career most flourished.

Western Monthly Magazine[edit]

A primary contributor to this periodical was Harriet Beecher, among her first important publications.

History of the Indian Tribes of North America[edit]

Family[edit]

Hall was married twice. He met and married his first wife

Works[edit]

The following are his principal works:—

Letters from the West, originally contributed to the Portfolio, and collected and published in London in 1828
Legends of the West (1832)
The Soldier’s Bride and other Tales (1832)
The Harpe’s Head, a Legend of Kentucky (1833)
Sketches of the West (2 vols., 1835)
Tales of the Border (1835)
Notes on the Western States (1838)
History of the Indian Tribes of North America, in conjunction with Thomas L. McKenney (3 vols., 1838-1844)
The Wilderness and the War-Path (1845)
Romance of Western History (1857)

References[edit]

^ Flanagan, John T. (1971). James Hall, Literary Pioneer of the Ohio Valley. New York: Russell & Russell. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
^ "James Hall (1793-1868)". The Biographical Encyclopaedia of Ohio of the Nineteenth Century. Cincinnati & Philadelphia: Galaxy Publishing Co. 1876. pp. 660–661.
^ Hall, James (1825). "Letters from the West IV: The Missouri Trapper". The Port Folio. 19. John Elihu Hall: 214–219. Retrieved October 16, 2016.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hall, James, American judge and man of letters". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.