Samuel Griswold Goodrich was a prolific author, editor, and publisher of children's books and periodicals, the best known of which were issued under the name of Peter Parley. Goodrich himself estimated that seven million of the Peter Parley books had been published by 1856, and as many as twelve million volumes were published in total. The popularity of his texts allowed him to feed the appetite of his young readers for informative, educational materials from a thoroughly, if parochial, American point of view. In addition, Goodrich published The Token, a major gift book or annual, that associated him with several significant contemporary authors, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was involved in various literary ventures with Goodrich.

Born 19 August 1793 in Ridgefield, Connecticut, Samuel Griswold Goodrich was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Ely) Goodrich, both from prominent Connecticut families. His father was a Congregationalist minister, and Goodrich grew up as a...