Maturin Murray Ballou was a writer and publisher in 19th-century Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

. He co-founded Gleason's Pictorial; was the first editor of the Boston Daily Globe; and wrote numerous travel books and works of popular fiction.

1820s - 1840s

Ballou was born in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 in 1820, to parents Hosea Ballou

Hosea Ballou

Hosea Ballou was an American Universalist clergyman and theological writer.-Biography:Hosea Ballou was born in Richmond, New Hampshire, to a family of Huguenot origin...

 and Ruth Washburn. Ballou attended the English High School

English High School of Boston

The English High School of Boston, Massachusetts is the first public high school in America, founded in 1821. Originally called The English Classical School, it was renamed The English High School upon its first relocation in 1824. The current building is located in Jamaica Plain.-History:Since its...

, and although he passed the entrance exam for Harvard College

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, he did not attend.

He married Mary Anne Roberts on Sept. 15, 1839. Their children included Murray Roberts Ballou (b.1840).

Starting around 1838, Ballou wrote for the Olive Branch, a weekly paper published in Boston. In addition to writing, Ballou worked various jobs for the Boston Post Office, 1839 and the Boston Customs House, ca.1845. From 1842 through 1844, Ballou and Isaac H. Wright published the weekly newspaper Bay State Democrat. Writing under the pseudonym Lieutenant Murray, Ballou authored popular novels, which were published by Frederick Gleason

Frederick Gleason

Frederick Gleason was a publisher in Boston, Massachusetts in the mid-19th century. He is best known for establishing the popular illustrated weekly Gleason's Pictorial, at the time an innovation in American publishing...

, starting around 1845. Early titles included: The gipsey, or, The robbers of Naples : a story of love and pride. He also wrote stories for The Flag of Our Union

The Flag of Our Union

The Flag of our Union was a popular, weekly newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts in the mid-19th century. In addition to news, it published works of fiction and poetry, including contributions from notable writers.-Brief history:...

.

1850s

In 1851, Ballou and Frederick Gleason

Frederick Gleason

Frederick Gleason was a publisher in Boston, Massachusetts in the mid-19th century. He is best known for establishing the popular illustrated weekly Gleason's Pictorial, at the time an innovation in American publishing...

 established the weekly paper Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion. It was inspired by The Illustrated London News'. The first issue appeared on May 3, 1851, and declared: "The object of this paper is to present, in the most elegant and available form, a weekly literary melange of notable events of the day. Its columns are devoted to original tales, sketches, and poems, by the best American authors, and the cream of the domestic and foreign news; the whole well spiced with wit and humor." In November 1854, Ballou bought out Gleason and changed the paper's name to Ballou's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion.

Around 1857, Ballou's publishing enterprise operated from 22 Winter Street

Winter Street (Boston)

Winter Street in Boston, Massachusetts is located between Tremont Street and Washington Street, near the Common. It is currently a pedestrian zone. Prior to 1708, it was called Blott's Lane and then Bannister's Lane.-See also:* Downtown Crossing...

 in Boston. The building was built in 1856.

"...The building housed on its first two main floors the editorial and business offices of the publisher Maturin Murray Ballou. The basement held the 12 steam-powered presses that each week brought forth, among other publications, more than 100,000 copies of a 16-page, profusely illustrated journal, Ballou's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion. Engravers occupied the 3rd floor, working at desks by the windows. Atop the building's 4 storeys rose an attic crowned with a large light-admitting lantern. This lantern illuminated the room that Ballou had provided for the graphic artists who contributed to his Companion.

Illustrators who worked for Ballou included John Andrew, Charles A. Barry, W.L. Champney, John Chapin, William Croome

William Croome

William Croome was an American illustrator and wood engraver in the 19th century. He trained with Abel Bowen in Boston, Massachusetts. Croome's work appeared in the American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge , Lady's Annual , Crockett Almanac , and in numerous children's books.-Works...

, Charles Damoreau, George Devereux

George Devereux

George Devereux was an American - French ethnologist and psychoanalyst, born in a Jewish family from Banat. He was one of the pioneers of ethnopsychoanalysis and ethnopsychiatry.-Biography:...

, Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer was an American landscape painter and printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th century America and a preeminent figure in American art....

, Frank Leslie

Frank Leslie

Frank Leslie was an English-born American engraver, illustrator, and publisher of family periodicals.-English origins:...

, John Manning, Emile Masson, Samuel Worcester Rowse, William Wade, Alfred Waud, William Waud.

By 1859, M.M. Ballou published several additional periodicals:

• The Flag of Our Union
  The Flag of Our Union
  The Flag of our Union was a popular, weekly newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts in the mid-19th century. In addition to news, it published works of fiction and poetry, including contributions from notable writers.-Brief history:...
  
  .
• The Weekly Novelette. Some were written by Ballou, under his "Lieutenant Murray" pseudonym: Novelette no. 90 - The scarlet flag; or, The Caribbean rover : a story of the early Buccaneers; Novelette no. 137 - The pirate smugglers; or, The last cruise of the Viper.
• Ballou's Dollar Monthly ("the cheapest magazine in the world"), which continued until June 1893, under varying titles: Dollar Monthly (1863–1865) and Ballou's Monthly Magazine (1866–1893).

1860s - 1890s

In 1867, Ballou built the St. James Hotel, on Franklin Square

Franklin and Blackstone Squares

Blackstone and Franklin Squares are located in the South End of Boston, Massachusetts. Charles Bullfinch, who created the plan for the South End, originally intended the two squares to be one, calling it Columbia Square. Franklin Square opened in 1849 and Blackstone Square subsequently opened in...

 in Boston. The hotel had 400 rooms, and was "the largest family hotel in the city, and one of the most expensively furnished."

Ballou served as the first editor of the Boston Daily Globe, 1872-74. Contemporary reviews were positive:

"Boston has another daily newspaper, to add to the 8 or 10 already published here. The Boston Daily Globe comes into being full-armed, like Minerva from the head of Jove; a large 8-page paper, having more of the cast of countenance belonging to the Times or the Tribune than any of its Boston relatives. It claims to be neutral in politics.... This is a new departure in journalism."

In the 1880s and 1890s, Ballou authored several travel books, covering Alaska, Russia, Cuba, India, South America, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Samoa, and elsewhere. In 1882 he "circumnavigated the globe."

In 1885-1886, Ballou was a proprietor of the Boston Athenaeum.

Ballou died on March 27, 1895, in Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

, Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, where he had been with his wife since January 1895. He is buried in Boston.

Non-Fiction

• Biography of Rev. Hosea Ballou. Boston : A. Tompkins, 1852.
• Life story of Hosea Ballou : for the young. Boston : Tompkins, 1854.
• Treasury of thought. forming an encyclopædia of quotations from ancient and modern authors. Boston, J.R. Osgood and Co., 1872.
• Pearls of thought. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin & company, 1881.
• Notable thoughts about women : a literary mosaic. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1882.
• Edge-tools of speech. Boston, Ticknor and Co., 1886.
• Genius in sunshine and shadow. Boston, Ticknor and Co., 1887.

Travel

• Will Cuba come into the Union? History of Cuba; or, notes of a traveller in the tropics. : Being a political, historical, and statistical account of the island, from its first discovery, to the present time. Boston [Mass.] : Published by Phillips, Sampson & Co., [1854]
• History of Cuba, or, Notes of a traveller in the tropics being a political, historical, and statistical account of the island, from its first discovery to the present time. Boston : New York : Phillips, Sampson and company ; J.C. Derby; [etc., etc.], 1854.
• Due south; or, Cuba past and present. Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1885.
• Due west; or, Round the world in ten months. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1886, ©1884.
• Due north; or, Glimpses of Scandinavia and Russia. Boston, Ticknor and Co., 1887.
• Travels under the Southern Cross, being a second edition of Under the Southern Cross or travels in Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Samoa and other Pacific Islands. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin and Co., ©1887.
• Foot-prints of travel, or, Journeyings in many lands. Boston : Ginn, 1888.
• The new Eldorado a summer journey to Alaska. Boston ; New York : Houghton, Mifflin, 1889.
• Aztec Land. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1890.
• Equatorial America, descriptive of a visit to St. Thomas, Martinique, Barbadoes, and the principal capitals of South America. Boston and New York, Houghton, 1892.
• The story of Malta. Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1893.
• The Pearl of India. Boston, New York, Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1894.

Fiction

• Ben Bobstay, the Boatswain's Mate, and Rosetta of Boston. Boston, John B. Hall, 1845.
• Fanny Campbell, the Female Pirate Captain. Boston, F. Gleason, 1845.
• The Naval Officer, or, The pirate's cave. Boston, F. Gleason, 1845.
• The Protege of the Grand Duke: A Tale of Italy. Boston, F. Gleason, 1845.
• Red Rupert, the American Bucanier. Boston, Gleason's Publishing Hall, 1845.
• Albert Simmons; or, The Midshipmen's Revenge. Boston, F. Gleason, 1845.
• The Child of the Sea; or, The Smuggler of Colonial Times. And The Love Test. Boston, United States Publishing Company, 1846.
• The Gipsey; or, The robbers of Naples : a story of love and pride. Boston, F. Gleason, 1847.
• Roderick the Rover; or, The Spirit of the Wave. Boston, Gleason's Publishing Hall, 1847.
• The Spanish Musketeer. Boston, Gleason's Publishing Hall, 1847.
• The Adventurer; or, The Wreck on the Indian Ocean . . . Boston, F. Gleason, 1848.
• Rosalette; or, The Flower Girl of Paris. Boston, F. Gleason, 1848.
• The Belle of Madrid; or, The Unknown Mask. Boston, F. Gleason, 1849.
• The Cabin Boy; or, Life on the Wing. Boston, F. Gleason, (1848).
• The Sea-witch Or, the African Quadroon: A Story of the Slave Coast.
• The Magician of Naples; or, Love and Necromancy. New York, Samuel French, [1850?]
• The Turkish Slave; or, The Mahometan and His Harem. Boston, F. Gleason, 1850.

Further reading

• S.A. Allibone. Critical dictionary of English literature. 1859.
• A. Ballou. History and genealogy of the Ballous in America. 1888.
• O.F. Adams. Dictionary of American authors. 1897.
• American national biography.

External links

• Ballou's Dollar Monthly 1856; 1862 Maturin Murray Ballou is mentioned at the end of this article.