Paulding

Paulding, JAMES KIRKE, an American author, was born in Dutchess county, New York, August 22, 1779. Self-educated, he early showed a tendency to literature, and, being a friend of Washington Irving, wrote a portion of Salmagundi. During the war of 1812 he published the Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan; and in 1814 a more serious work, The United States and England, a defence against articles in the Quarterly Review. This gained him an appointment on the Board of Naval Commissioners. He still continued to write minor satires and humorous sketches, and in 1831 published the very successful novel, The Dutchman's Fireside, and in 1832 Westward Ho! which attained to a similar popularity. These were followed by a popularly written Life of Washington (1835), and Slavery in the United States (1836), in which the institution is defended on social, economical, and physiological grounds. In 1837 Van Buren appointed him Secretary of the Navy. Four years later he retired to a country residence at Hyde Park, New York state, where he died, April 6, 1860. The well-known patter lines, 'Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,' &c., occur in his satirical novel Koningsmarke (1823). Four vols. of his Select Works were edited by his son (New York, 1867-68).