John Neal (1793–1876) was an American editor, poet, novelist, art/literary critic, and man of affairs. He was also an early women’s rights advocate, prohibitionist, and temperance advocate, an opponent of dueling, accomplished lawyer, boxer, and architect.
Born in Falmouth, Maine, Neal went into business but failed, qualified as a lawyer, then became editor of Portico, a short-lived but influential literary monthly published by the chauvinistic Delphian Club, Baltimore. He sometimes signed himself ‘Jehu O’Cataract.’
Neal’s melodramatic novel Keep Cool (1817,) about a man’s guilt over the death of his opponent in a duel, made him famous. Among his many other novels is Logan, A Family History (1822,) about an actual Englishman who married the queen of a Native American tribe. Soon after its publication, Neal went to England 1824–27, where he acted as secretary to philosopher Jeremy Bentham.
Neal’s best novel is Rachel Dyer (1828,) about a Salem witch. His autobiography is Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life (1869.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by John Neal
A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man; it is what he wants and must have to be good for anything. Hardship and opposition are the native soil of manhood and self-reliance.
—John Neal
Topics: Difficulties, Adversity
A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man.
Kites rise against, not with the wind.
No man ever worked his passage anywhere in a dead calm.
—John Neal
Topics: Forgiveness, Adversity
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