Thomas Bailey Aldrich.
Judging from “The Story of a Bad Boy,” which is partly autobiographical, Thomas Bailey Aldrich spent his boyhood just as all wholesome-minded, healthy boys do, in having a good time. He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, November 11, 1836. While he was still a baby, his family went to New Orleans, but he was sent back to his native town to be educated. After a common school course, he prepared to enter Harvard, but his father failed in business and soon afterward died. Although young Aldrich’s relatives were prepared to pay the expenses of his college course, he preferred to be independent and decided to begin a business career. So it came about that he entered the offices of his uncle in New York city at the age of sixteen. About this time he began to contribute articles in prose and verse to Putnam’s Magazine, The Knickerbocker Magazine and other periodicals. His literary ability finally got him a place in a publishing house as reader of manuscripts and of proof. His first book, The Bells, did not attract much attention, but in 1856 he published The Ballad of Baby Bell and Other Poems, which struck the popular fancy. About the year 1860 he became an independent writer, contributing to various publications, but chiefly to the Atlantic Monthly. In 1870 he became editor of Every Saturday, a high-class literary weekly, which was founded in Boston and effectively edited, yet only lived four years. In 1881 he succeeded Mr. Howells in the editorial chair of the Atlantic Monthly. In this same year both Mr. Howells and Mr. Aldrich received from Yale university the degree of LL.D. Mr. Aldrich retired from the Atlantic Monthly in 1890. In 1865 he was married to Miss Lillian Woodman, of New York city. Several children were born to him.