Charles Astor Bristed was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 scholar and author, sometimes writing under the nom de plume Carl Benson. He was the first American to write a full-length defense of Americanisms.

Biography

Bristed was born in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, the son of the Reverend John Bristed and Magdalena Astor (daughter of John Jacob Astor

John Jacob Astor

John Jacob Astor , born Johann Jakob Astor, was a German-American business magnate and investor who was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States...

). He graduated from Yale College

Yale College

Yale College was the official name of Yale University from 1718 to 1887. The name now refers to the undergraduate part of the university. Each undergraduate student is assigned to one of 12 residential colleges.-Residential colleges:...

 in 1839 with honors, and from Trinity College

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

, Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, in 1845, taking numerous prizes and being made a foundation scholar of the college. He returned to the United States in 1847, and married as his first wife Laura Whetten Brevoort (1823-1848, the daughter of Henry Brevoort and Sarah Whetten); and as his second wife Grace Ashburner Sedgwick (1833-1897, the daughter of Charles Sedgwick and Elizabeth Buckminster Dwight), by whom he had two sons (Charles-Astor, Jr. & John) and a daughter (Cecilia).

He amused himself contributing articles, poetical translations, critical papers on the classics, and sketches of society to various journals, and in 1849 edited "Selections from Catullus

Catullus

Gaius Valerius Catullus was a Latin poet of the Republican period. His surviving works are still read widely, and continue to influence poetry and other forms of art.-Biography:...

," for school use. In 1850 he published "Letters to the Hon. Horace Mann

Horace Mann

Horace Mann was an American education reformer, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1827 to 1833. He served in the Massachusetts Senate from 1834 to 1837. In 1848, after serving as Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education since its creation, he was...

," being a reply to some strictures upon the characters of Girard and Astor. In 1852 a collection of his sketches on New York Society entitled "The Upper Ten Thousand

Upper ten thousand

Upper Ten Thousand, or simply, The Upper Ten, is a phrase coined in 1852 by American poet Nathaniel Parker Willis to describe the upper circles of New York, and hence of other major cities....

," appeared in the "Fraser Magazine." At the same time he published "Four Years in an English University," in which he described the manners, customs, and mode of life but little understood in this country.

Bristed exhibited in his writings a keen appreciation of men and books. His wide scholarship makes his essays valuable, and marks his criticisms with the best qualities of a trained university man. He also published many clever poetical translations from the classics. In his later years he resided in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

  He was a frequent contributor to the "Galaxy," under the pen-name "Carl Benson," and published "The Interference Theory of Governments," a book denunciatory of tariff

Tariff

A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....

 and prohibitory liquor laws, and "Pieces of a Broken-down Critic."

He was one of the trustees of the Astor Library

Astor Library

The Astor Library was a free public library developed primarily through the collaboration of New York merchant John Jacob Astor and New England educator and bibliographer Joseph Cogswell. It was primarily meant as a research library, and its books did not circulate...

from its origin. He died in Washington, D.C.