In this video I talk about two Connecticut writers of the early nineteenth century who wrote factual books for children. Jesse Olney, who served as the principal of Hartford’s First District School and later lived in Southington, wrote bestselling geography textbooks. Samuel Griswold Goodrich, who wrote under the name Peter Parley, wrote a long series of books that covered a variety of subjects, including history, geography and science. He grew up in Ridgefield, spent his young adulthood in Hartford and, after living in Massachusetts and abroad, moved to Southbury just before his death.
New Video: Two Early American Children’s Book Authors from Connecticut