Edward Isidore Sears is best known for his campaigns against the "quacks and scoundrels" of his time. His National Quarterly Review became an early champion of the same ideals Adolph Ochs would establish as he turned the failing New York Times into the most respected news publication of the twentieth century, printing "All the News That's Fit to Print." Sears was well versed on many subjects and was able to expound upon historical, scientific, political, educational, economic, and literary topics at length and with confidence. Considering his prolific contribution to nineteenth-century journalism, it is striking that so little has been recorded about the editor and publisher of the National Quarterly Review.

Sears did not aspire to fame through his writing, and instead dedicated himself to the publication of the review and to teaching. The few biographical accounts that exist list his birth year variously as 1819, 1820, and 1824. Most sources...