Edwin Munroe Bacon

American writer and editor (1844–1916)

Edwin Munroe Bacon
Bacon, c. 1896
Born	(1844-10-20)October 20, 1844 Providence, Rhode Island
Died	February 24, 1916(1916-02-24) (aged 71) Boston, Massachusetts
Pen name	Taverner
Occupation	Newspaper editor and writer
Spouse	Custa E. Hill
Signature

Edwin Munroe Bacon (better known as, Edwin M. Bacon; pseudonym, Taverner; October 20, 1844 – February 24, 1916) was an American writer and editor who worked for the Boston Daily Advertiser and The Boston Globe and also wrote books about Boston, Massachusetts, and New England. His books include Bacon's Dictionary of Boston.

Biography

Bacon was born on October 20, 1844, in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the son of Henry and Eliza Ann (Munroe) Bacon, and the brother of the painter Henry Bacon. He was of English and Scotch ancestry. His father, born in Boston, son of Robert Bacon, a native of Barnstable, of an early Cape Cod family, and prominent in his day as a manufacturer at Baconville (now part of Winchester), was a Universalist clergyman and editor, who died in Philadelphia when the son was 12 years old. His mother was a native of Lexington, Massachusetts, and two of her ancestors fought in the fight on Lexington Green. She was a descendant of William Munroe, from Scotland, settled in Lexington in 1660.^[1]

Bacon's early education was mainly attained in private schools in Providence, Philadelphia, and Boston. He finished his studies in an academy at Foxboro, Massachusetts, a private and boarding school, which flourished for many years under James L. Stone as principal, and which fitted many boys for college. Prepared for college, he determined not to enter, but at once to engage in the work of his chosen profession.^[1]

Bacon worked for the Boston Daily Advertiser (1863–1886, intermittently); Illustrated Chicago News (1864–1868); The New York Times (1868–1872); The Boston Globe (1873–1878); The Boston Post (1886–1891); The Time and the Hour (1897–1900).^[2]^[3]^[4] He sometimes wrote under the pen-name "Taverner."^[5]

In 1880, Dartmouth College awarded Bacon an honorary Master of Arts degree. He died on February 24, 1916, at his home in Boston; he was survived by his wife and a daughter.^[6] His body was cremated at Mount Auburn Cemetery, and his ashes were buried in Saco, Maine.^[7]

Selected works

Bacon's dictionary of Boston, with George Edward Ellis. Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1886.
Boston illustrated: containing full descriptions of the city and its immediate suburbs, its public buildings and institutions, business edifices, parks and avenues, statues, harbor and islands, etc., etc., with Edward Stanwood. revised ed. Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1886.
Boston of to-day: a glance at its history and characteristics. With biographical sketches and portraits of many of its professional and business men, with Richard Herndon. Boston: Post Publishing Company, 1892.
Historic pilgrimages in New England: among landmarks of Pilgrim and Puritan days and of the provincial and revolutionary periods. Silver, Burdett & Company, 1898.
Walks and rides in the country round about Boston: covering thirty-six cities and towns, parks and public reservations, within a radius of twelve miles from the State house. Pub. for the Appalachian Mountain Club by Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1898.
The Connecticut River and the Valley of the Connecticut. Historical and descriptive. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1906.
"Gary's Magnetic Motor", Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 0058 Issue 346, pages 601–605, 1879

References

^ ^a ^b Bacon 1896, p. 836.
^ Who's who in New England. A.N. Marquis, 1915.
^ Rossiter Johnson, John Howard Brown, eds. The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. The Biographical Society, 1904.
^ Richard Herndon, Edwin M. Bacon. Boston of to-day: a glance at its history and characteristics. With biographical sketches and portraits of many of its professional and business men. Boston: Post Publishing Company, 1892; p.133.
^ Lindsay Swift. Literary landmarks of Boston : a visitor's guide to points of literary interest in and about Boston. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1903.
^ "Edwin M. Bacon Dead". The New York Times. February 25, 1916. Retrieved March 16, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
^ "Ashes of Edwin M. Bacon to be Buried in Saco, Maine". The Boston Globe. February 28, 1916. p. 10. Retrieved July 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.

Bibliography

This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Bacon, Edwin M. (1896). Men of Progress: One Thousand Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Leaders in Business and Professional Life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Public domain ed.). New England Magazine. p. 836.