James Baldwin (1841–1925) was an American educator and administrator. He served as the superintendent of Indiana's school system for 18 years and then went on to become a widely published textbook editor and children's author in the subjects of legends, mythology, biography, and literature, among others.
James Baldwin | |
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Born | Hamilton County, Indiana | December 15, 1841
Died | September 1, 1925 South Orange, New Jersey | (aged 83)
Occupation(s) | Writer, educator |
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Biography
editJames Baldwin was born in Hamilton County, Indiana on December 15, 1841.[1] He became an educator and administrator in that state starting at the age of 24. He served as the superintendent of Indiana's school system for 18 years
He was one of the most prolific authors of school books for children at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. In addition to the Baldwin Readers (1897), he co-authored the Harper Readers (1888) and the Expressive Readers (1911). He wrote over thirty books about famous people in history and retold classical stories. His publications numbered 54 volumes. It is estimated that 26 million copies of his works sold worldwide, including in China and Indonesia. A self-educated man, he became a school superintendent before working as an editor for Harper's and later for the American Book Company.[2]
He wrote more than fifty books, including Fifty Famous Stories Retold (1896) and Abraham Lincoln, a True Life (1904).[3]
James Baldwin died at his home in South Orange, New Jersey on September 1, 1925.[4]
References
edit- ^ The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. XIV. James T. White & Company. 1910. p. 134. Retrieved December 15, 2020 – via Google Books.
- ^ Fisher, Peter; Shapiro, Sheila (1995). "James Baldwin (1841-1925): A Man Who Loved Stories". Reading Psychology. 16 (2): 149–167. doi:10.1080/0270271950160202. See the same from History of Reading News. Vol.XVII No.1 (1993:Fall) Archived February 17, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "The Baldwin Online Children's Project". Retrieved December 17, 2012.
- ^ "Huntington's First Supt. of Schools Dies". The Huntington Press. September 2, 1925. p. 1. Retrieved December 15, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
External links
edit- Biography and bibliography at The Baldwin Project. Includes text sources.
- Works by James Baldwin at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about James Baldwin at the Internet Archive
- Works by James Baldwin at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Johnson, Rossiter, ed. (1906). "Baldwin, James". The Biographical Dictionary of America. Vol. 1. Boston: American Biographical Society. p. 196.