Briggs, Charles Frederick (Dec. 30, 1804 - June 20, 1877), journalist and author, was born on the island of Nantucket, Mass., the son of Jonathan C. and Sally (Coffin) Barrett Briggs. He early went to sea, sailing to Europe and South America on several voyages, but soon gave up the idea of being a sailor, and engaged in mercantile pursuits in New York. In 1839 he published a novel called The Adventures of Harry Franco: A Tale of the Great Panic, in which he made use of his experiences gained on the sea. In several subsequent works of fiction he used as a pseudonym the name of the hero of this first work. In 1843 he wrote The Haunted Merchant and the next year founded the Broadway Journal. Edgar Allan Poe was a contributor from the first number and soon was made associate editor along with Henry G. Watson, a musical critic. Briggs, with characteristic friendliness, began by admiring Poe and defending him against criticism, but could not long remain blind to his talented associate's temperamental peculiarities and weaknesses. He retired from the Journal in 1845 and in the next two years published Working a Passage, another reminiscence of his sailor days, and The Trippings of Tom Pepper. Some of his friends were annoyed to recognize themselves in the latter book and the author thereupon determined to write no more fiction. In 1853 he became one of the editors of Putnam's Magazine, in association with Parke Godwin and George William Curtis. After three years the magazine suspended and when it resumed ten years later Briggs was again one of its editors. In the interim he was an editor of the New York Times under Henry J. Raymond, and during the latter's absence in Europe was given editorial charge of the paper. He held a position also in the New York Custom House during this period. In 1870 he was made financial editor of the Brooklyn Union by Henry C. Bowen and acted in that capacity for three years. Benjamin F. Tracy, who then bought the paper, made Briggs editor, but the latter soon left to join the editorial staff of the Independent, which Bowen also owned. Briggs served there until a few hours before his death, which came suddenly at his home in Brooklyn. He left a widow and one daughter. Among other activities he was one of the three men who composed the first Board of Commissioners for Central Park, and for twenty-four years he wrote the annual preface for Trow's New York City Directory. His association with Poe caused the publishers of the Encyclopedia Britannica to have him write the sketch of the poet for that work. He was a friend of James Russell Lowell, with whom he had considerable correspondence at a time when Poe was attacking Longfellow, and, less vigorously, Lowell himself on fancied grounds of plagiarism. Lowell in his Fable for Critics, which he presented to Briggs with the privilege of copyrighting it and enjoying the proceeds, gave a deservedly appreciative portrait of him under his pseudonym.