There was a period of transition in biographical writing during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The concentration on literary style and the marked tendency toward biased accounts slowly gave way to more serious historical research and objectivity displayed by a growing number of authors. John T. Morse, Jr.'s biographical writing and the American Statesmen series which he edited generally reflected the changing nature of writing at the time. As editor and popular biographer, he contributed to the broadening of the American reading public's interest in the American past.

John Torrey Morse, Jr., was born in Boston on 9 January 1840. He was the eldest of three sons born to John Torrey Morse, a merchant engaged in the East India trade, and Lucy Cabot Jackson Morse, the daughter of Charles Jackson, lawyer and justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Both parents came from distinguished families highly...