king-pin Part III

[Victor Steinbok]

Thanks. The clarifies the biography of this king-pin. For a failed
businessman, he wrote a lot about those who didn't (I'll let you parse
this sentence for a second). So we have a Gold Rush escapee-cum
diplomat, writing about broken carriages and a failed businessman and
drunk (he failed at that too, apparently) writing about people named
after carriage bolts, both publishing in NYC. Oh, and there are two
novels that oddly overlap (the middle of one is similar or nearly
identical to the beginning of the other--I didn't both checking the text
for full coincidence)--both with one-word titles.

Thanks for the tip, George!

      VS-)

On 5/21/2012 9:42 AM, George Thompson wrote:
> "One of the copies of Barrett's book above and the copy of Vigor
> GB lists as authored by Joseph Alfred Scoville. Was "Walter Barrett" a
> pseudonym? Indeed that appears to be the case."
>
> It seems that J. A. Scoville was a businessman whose career foundered
> because he was a drunk.  He became a journalist and the founder-editor of
> the New York Pick, "A Journal of Fun and Temperance", in 1852.  I don't
> think it thrived much: only a few issues survive.  You may have met it here
> -- I may have posted a word or two from it, a few years ago.    He did his
> journalism under his own name, his book on the Old Merchants under the
> pseudonym.  (I didn't know he had written novels: thanks, Victor.)
>
> GAT
>
> On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 6:48 AM, Victor Steinbok<aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> These are all going with king-pin 1., but what about king-pin 2.? If my
>> guess is correct, there should be earlier instances of the figurative
>> expression, irrespectively if the mechanical one existed. And we have a
>> winner (sort of).
>>
>> http://goo.gl/lUmUH
>> The old merchants of New York City. By Walter Barrett. New York: 1862
>> [GB: 1864]
>> p. 140
>>> It is a very curious fact, that while E. D. Morgan made his wealth out
>>> of the Southern planters, he should have turned against them in after
>>> years, and became a King Pin in the ranks of the Republicans. Of late
>>> years grocer and Governor E. D. Morgan has engaged in various
>>> speculations, especially in railroads. He has the credit of being, to
>>> a certain extent, intimate with both Democrats and Republicans.
>> As the Governor of New York, E. D. Morgan became the de facto leader of
>> the New York Republican Party.
>> ***

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