Park Benjamin Sr. Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

Park Benjamin, Sr. (1809-1864) was an American poet, journalist, editor and founder of several newspapers. Born in British Guiana in South America, Benjamin was sent at an early age to study in New England, eventually graduating from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut; initially he studied law in Boston, but later moved to New York to begin a career in editorial work. In 1839 he partnered with Rufus Wilmot Griswold to produce The Evening Tattler, a journal which published fiction, poetry, foreign news, local gossip, jokes and New York police reports; Benjamin later founded The New World and other editorial ventures before focusing as a lecturer, public reader and periodical writer, and became close friends with writers such as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe. He died very young at the age of 55 just after the birth of his son Park Benjamin Jr.; despite his widespread fame during his lifetime, Park Benjamin Sr. was virtually forgotten, known only through his sonnets such as "The Old Sexton" which is often anthologized. His son went on to become a writer, patent lawyer and physician in his own right.