Edwin Munroe Bacon


Edwin Munroe Bacon was an American writer and editor who worked for the Boston Daily Advertiser and The [Boston Globe] and also wrote books about Boston, Massachusetts, and New England. His books include Bacon's Dictionary of Boston.

Biography

Bacon was born on October 20, 1844, in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the son of Henry and Eliza Ann Bacon, and the brother of the painter Henry Bacon. He was of English and Scotch ancestry. His father, born in Boston, son of Robert Bacon, a native of Barnstable, of an early Cape Cod family, and prominent in his day as a manufacturer at Baconville, was a Universalist clergyman and editor, who died in Philadelphia when the son was 12 years old. His mother was a native of Lexington, Massachusetts, and two of her ancestors fought in the fight on Lexington Green. She was a descendant of William Munroe, from Scotland, settled in Lexington in 1660.
Bacon's early education was mainly attained in private schools in Providence, Philadelphia, and Boston. He finished his studies in an academy at Foxboro, Massachusetts, a private and boarding school, which flourished for many years under James L. Stone as principal, and which fitted many boys for college. Prepared for college, he determined not to enter, but at once to engage in the work of his chosen profession.
Bacon worked for the Boston Daily Advertiser ; Illustrated Chicago News ; The [New York Times] ; The Boston Globe ; The Boston Post ; The Time and the Hour. He sometimes wrote under the pen-name "Taverner."
In 1880, Dartmouth College awarded Bacon an honorary Master of Arts degree. He died on February 24, 1916, at his home in Boston; he was survived by his wife and a daughter. His body was cremated at Mount Auburn Cemetery, and his ashes were buried in Saco, Maine.

Selected works