Hezekiah Butterworth was among the nineteenth century's prolific authors for children. He produced scores of books, contributed many articles to magazines, and served as assistant editor of the Youth's Companion for twenty-four years. He is best remembered for the Zigzag Journeys, a series of travel books, but he also wrote numerous biographies and histories. While some critics charged that his writing read like pages from an encyclopedia, librarians, parents, and teachers commended his books for their wholesomeness.

Hezekiah Butterworth grew up on a farm in Warren, Rhode Island. The land had been in the Butterworth family for generations, and his parents, Gardiner M. and Susan Ritchie Butterworth, were quite content working the farm and raising their six children. Farm life, however, had little appeal for the young Butterworth. He preferred to listen to his aunt's ghost stories instead of doing his chores, and he dreamed of becoming a...