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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] George Denison Prentice Biography PRENTICE,
George Denison (1802-70). An American journalist, born at Preston, Conn. He
graduated at Brown University in 1823, studied law and was admitted to the bar,
but never practiced, and in 1828 became the first editor of the New
England Review. In 1830 he removed to Kentucky, and there published his
popular campaign life of Henry Clay (1831). He
established in the Whig interest at Louisville in 1830 the Journal,
which soon came to be the best-edited and most widely read newspaper in that
region. He did much to increase the Journal's
circulation and his own fame through originating the brief, pointed paragraph,
theretofore almost unknown. A collection of these paragraphs, edited by himself,
appeared in 1860 as Prenticeana (rev.
ed., 1870). Prentice was a vigorous opponent, and was so frequently involved in
duels as to become a subject of jest. He was antagonistic to secession, and it
is said that his editorials had an important influence in keeping Kentucky from
withdrawing from the Union. He published in the Journal
considerable verse, later edited by J. J. Piatt (Cincinnati, 1876). He also
contributed for some time a column of Wit and Humor to Robert Bonner's New York Ledger. He retired from the editorship of the Journal in 1867. Consult the sketch by J. J. Piatt, in the edition
of the Poems above referred to, and
Henry Watterson, Memorial Address
(Cincinnati, 1870). |