Roc

Roc, EDWARD PAYSON, American novelist, was born in New Windsor, New York, 7th March 1838. On the completion of his theological studies he became a chaplain in the volunteer service (1862-65), and afterwards pastor of a Presbyterian church at Highland Falls. The great Chicago fire of 1871 furnished him with a subject for his first novel, Barriers Burned Away (1872), which proved very successful. He resigned his pastorate and settled at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson in 1874, where he devoted himself to the successful cultivation of literature and of small fruits. Fifteen novels came from his pen, all of which have been reprinted in Britain, and have been widely read on both sides of the Atlantic. The best known are From Jest to Earnest (1875), Near to Nature's Heart (1876), Nature's Serial Story (1884), and He Fell in Love with his Wife (1886). He is also the author of Play and Profit in My Garden (1873), and Success with Small Fruits (1880). He died suddenly, 19th July 1888; by which date the sale of his works had amounted to 750,000 copies.