James Kirke Paulding
| James Kirke Paulding | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 11th United States Secretary of the Navy | |
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In office July 1, 1838 – March 4, 1841 |
|
| President | Martin Van Buren |
| Preceded by | Mahlon Dickerson |
| Succeeded by | George E. Badger |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
August 22, 1778 Pleasant Valley, Dutchess County, New York, US |
| Died | April 6, 1860 (aged 81) Hyde Park, New York, US |
| Political party | Democratic-Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Gertrude Kemble |
| Profession | Politician, writer |
James Kirke Paulding (August 22, 1778 – April 6, 1860) was an American writer and, for a time, the United States Secretary of the Navy.
James Kirke Paulding was born on August 22, 1778, at Pleasant Valley, New York. Paulding was chiefly self-educated.
He became a close friend of Washington Irving. With Irving, Paulding proposed a literary project. As he described, "one day in a frolicsome mood, we broached the idea of a little periodical merely for our own amusement, and that of the town, for neither of us anticipated any further circulation." The result was Salmagundi; a short-lived satirical periodical, from which the word 'Gotham' was first ascribed as a name for New York City.
Along with Irving, Paulding was associated with the "Knickerbocker group", a group which also included William Cullen Bryant, Gulian Crommelin Verplanck, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Joseph Rodman Drake, Robert Charles Sands, Lydia Maria Child, and Nathaniel Parker Willis.
Paulding's other writings also include The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan (1812), a satire, The Dutchman's Fireside (1831), a romance which attained popularity, a Life of Washington (1835), and some poems. In the decade before Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper achieved popular success, Paulding experimented in every genre in an effort to forge a new American literature. Thereafter, his outstanding contributions were in the novel and in a stage comedy. Koningsmarke (1823), which he began as a spoof of Walter Scott's historical romances, took unexpected hold of his imagination and became a well-turned novel, notable for its portrait of an old black woman that anticipates William Faulkner and for its sympathetic yet unromanticized depiction of the Indian. The Lion of the West (1831), selected in a play competition in which William Cullen Bryant was one of the judges, presented a cartoon of Davy Crockett; it was the most-often performed play on the American stage before Uncle Tom's Cabin, and an altered version enjoyed success in London. Paulding's View of Slavery in the United States (1836) was a comprehensive defense of both Black slavery and America's claim to be a bastian of liberty against the attacks of abolitionists and European critics.
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