Swinton, William. Elementary Course in Geography: designed for Primary and Intermediate Grades, and as A Complete Shorter Course. New York and Chicago: Iveson, Blakeman, Taylor, and Company, 1875. First Edition. [9407]
Black leather spine, decorated paper boards, boards quite scuffed with some loss of paper, 10 3/4 x 8 inches, tight. Lacks the front free end paper (begins at title page). 140 pp. with many b/w text illustrations and maps in color. A few edge tears to the pages. Good. Hardcover.
William Swinton (1833-1892), b. near Edinburgh, Scotland; d. Brooklyn, New York. At the age of ten, Swinton's family emigrated to Canada, and when of age, was educated at Knox College and at Amherst College. During the 1850's Swinton was a teacher first in North Carolina and next in New York City, where he was also preparing for the Presbyterian ministry. His success in writing secured him a position with the New York Times in 1858, at which time he decided to devote himself to a literary career. He was special correspondent for the Times during the American Civil War, travelling with and reporting from the Union armies in the field. His savage criticism of Union generals combined with his unsavory methods of securing information led to his banishment by the War Department, July 1, 1864. Swinton's subsequent career included a professorship of English at the University of California (1869-1874), after which he devoted himself to writing school textbooks, "with such success that a gold medal was awarded to him at the Paris exposition of 1878, and his royalties sometimes reached $25,000 a year. He produced geographies, spelling books, readers, grammars, histories of the United States and of the world - in short, he covered almost the whole field of juvenile human knowledge." - DAB.