William Munford, son of the above, was born in Mecklenburg County, Va., in 1775, and died in Richmond, Va., June 21, 1825. At the age of twenty-one he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. He was afterwards a senator from his district, was elected a member of the Privy Council of State, and continued in that office up to the time of his death. His chief literary work was a Translation of Homer's Iliad in blank verse, which was not published during his life-time.
Almoran and Hamet. A Tragedy. Published in a volume of Poems and Compositions in Prose on several occasions. Richmond, 1798. 8vo, pp. 189, [1].
MURDOCK, J.
The Triumphs of Love; or, Happy Reconciliations. A Comedy. Philadelphia, 1795. (Plate.) 12mo, pp. 83.
The Politicians; or, A State of Things. A Dramatic Piece. Written by an American and a Citizen of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, 1798. 8vo, pp. 37, and printed note.
NEAL, JOHN
John Neal, born in Portland, Me., August 25, 1793, died there June 21, 1876. He was entirely self-educated, and, after a few years of business occupation in Baltimore, he was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1819. He had already begun to have some popularity as a writer of stories, and in 1823 he was led to make a trip to England, in consequence of the popularity which his novels had acquired there. While in England he wrote several articles on America for the Quarterly Review, and enjoyed an intimacy with British men of letters, particularly Jeremy Bentham. On his return in 1828 he established The Yankee, and was an active journalist for half a century. To his energy is attributed the agitation of woman's suffrage, and the establishment of gymnasiums. He was Poe's first encourager. His Recollections were published in 1869.
Otho. A Tragedy in Five Acts. Boston, 1819. 16mo, pp. 120.
This play was written for Edmond Kean. It was entirely rewritten in The Yankee for 1828.
NOAH, MORDECAI MANUEL
Mordecai Manuel Noah, born in Philadelphia, July 19, 1785, died in New York, May 22, 1851, was a journalist and a lawyer. He went into politics when quite young, and was appointed United States Consul to Morocco in 1813; came to New York about 1820, and edited The National Advocate. He afterwards established The New York Enquirer, The Evening Star, and other papers. He published also a volume of travels. He was at one time appointed sheriff of the county. An estimate of his character and popularity is thus given by a contemporary: "He told the best story, rounded the best sentence, and wrote the best play of all his contemporaries.... As editor, critic, and author, he was looked up to as an oracle."