This Goodly Land

J. H. Ingraham (January 28, 1809–December 18, 1860)

Other Names Used

• Joseph Holt Ingraham, Jr.: full name
• F. Clinton Barrington: pen name
• Greenliffe Warren: pen name

Alabama Connections

• Mobile, Mobile County: adult residence

Selected Works

• Ingraham, J. H. The South-West. New York: Harper & Bros., 1835. Rpt. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1968. An online version of The South-West is available from Google Books.
• Ingraham, J. H. Lafitte: The Pirate of the Gulf. New York: Harper, 1836. Rpt. New York: Pollard & Moss, 1888. Rpt. New York: Garrett Press, 1970. Rpt. as Lafitte. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Literature House, 1970. Rpt. Albany, N.Y.: New College and University Press, 1990. An online version of Lafitte is available from Internet Archive’s American Libraries.
• Ingraham, J. H. The Dancing Feather, or, The Amateur Freebooters: A Romance of New York. Boston: George Roberts, 1842. An online version of The Dancing Feather is available from Google Books.
• Ingraham, J. H. Paul Perril, the Merchant's Son, or, The Adventures of a New-England Boy Launched Upon Life. Boston: Williams, 1847. An online version of Paul Perril is available from Internet Archive’s American Libraries.
• Ingraham, J. H. The Prince of the House of David, or, Three Years in the Holy City. New York: Pudney & Russell, 1855. Rpt. Boston: Roberts Bros., 1887. Rpt. Philadelphia: H. Altemus, 1897. Rpt. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1908. Rpt. London: Collins, 1948. Rpt. Folcroft, Pa.: Folcroft Library Editions, 1977. An online version of The Prince of the House of David is available from Wright American Fiction, 1851-1875.
• Ingraham, J. H. The Pillar of Fire, or, Israel in Bondage. New York: Pudney & Russell, 1859. Rpt. Boston: Roberts Bros., 1887. Rpt. Elgin, Ill.: Cook Pub. Co., 1899. An online version of The Pillar of Fire is available from Wright American Fiction 1851-1875.
• Ingraham, J. H. The Throne of David: From the Consecration of the Shepherd of Bethlehem to the Rebellion of Prince Absalom .... Philadelphia: G. G. Evans, 1860. Rpt. Boston: Roberts Bros., 1887. Rpt. Boston: Little, Brown, 1899. An online version of The Throne of David is available from Wright American Fiction 1851-1875.
• Ingraham, J. H. The Sunny South, or, The Southerner at Home: Embracing Five Years' Experience of a Northern Governess in the Land of the Sugar and the Cotton. Philadelphia: G. G. Evans, 1860. Rpt. as Not a "Fool's Errand": Life and Experience of a Northern Governess in the Sunny South. New York: G. W. Carleton, 1880. Rpt. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1968. An online version of The Sunny South is available from Wright American Fiction 1851-1875.

Biographical Information

J. H. Ingraham was born in Portland, Maine, and grew up in Hallowell, Maine. He graduated from Hallowell Academy and attended Yale College (now Yale University) for a year. In 1830, Ingraham sailed to New Orleans and traveled upriver to Natchez, Miss. He became a teacher at Jefferson College in Washington, Miss., and married the daughter of a Mississippi planter. A series of letters he wrote about the trip were published in the Natchez Courier from 1833 to 1835. These were collected and published as The South-West in 1835. The book sold well and was liked by critics. Ingraham began publishing articles and short stories in regional and national periodicals such as The Ladies’ Companion. His first novel, Lafitte (published in 1836), was an immediate success, and he published three more novels in the next three years. Despite their success, Ingraham had financial difficulties and went bankrupt in 1842. In an attempt to make more money, he began serializing his novels in popular magazines before publishing them in book form. He produced over seventy-five novels in six years.

In 1847, Ingraham decided to become an Episcopal minister and moved to Nashville to study theology. To support his family, he ran a girls’ school. He also established a prison ministry at the state penitentiary, leading Bible study and teaching reading classes. Ingraham was made a deacon in 1851 and was assigned to a cluster of mission churches in Mississippi. After his ordination to the priesthood, he became the parish priest of a church in Aberdeen, Miss., and taught at Aberdeen Female College. In 1853, Ingraham became a parish priest in Mobile, Ala. A series of fictional letters based on the story of Jesus (which had appeared earlier in an Episcopal magazine) was published in 1855 as The Prince of the House of David and became a bestseller. Ingraham still had financial difficulties, though, and, in 1857, he had to leave Mobile for Riverside, Tenn., where he was the minister of a church and the head of a girls’ school. He returned to Mississippi in 1858, becoming the minister of a church in Holly Springs and the head of a local boys’ school. In the next two years, he published two more Biblical novels and a travel novel. Ingraham died in Holly Springs in December 1860 from an accidental gunshot wound. His son Prentiss was a prolific author of dime novels after the Civil War.

Interests and Themes

J. H. Ingraham wrote many popular adventure stories, and his Biblical novels retell the stories of Jesus, Moses, and King David. The South-West provides information about life in New Orleans and Mississippi in the early 1830s. The Sunny South is one of many Southern responses to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.

For More Information

Please check your local library for these materials. If items are not available locally, your librarian can help you borrow them through the InterLibrary Loan program. Your librarian can also help you find other information about this author.

There may be more information available through the databases in the Alabama Virtual Library. If you are an Alabama citizen, AVL can be used at your public library or school library media center. You can also get a username and password from your librarian to use AVL at home.

Reference Books

• Weathersby, Robert W., II. J. H. Ingraham. Boston: Twayne, 1980.

Reference Articles

• French, Warren G. "A Hundred Years of a Religious Bestseller". Western Humanities Review 10. (1955): 45-54.

Reference Web Sites

• "Early Mysteries by Mississippians: Joseph Holt Ingraham". Murder with Southern Hospitality: An Exhibition of Mississippi Mysteries. 2004. Archives & Special Collections, J. D. Williams Library, University of Mississippi. http://hermes.lib.olemiss.edu/mystery/exhibit.asp?display=8§ion=1.
• Johannsen, Albert. "Ingraham, Rev. Joseph Holt". The House of Beadle and Adams and Its Dime and Nickel Novels: The Story of a Vanished Literature: Online. 2005. Northern Illinois University Libraries. http://www.ulib.niu.edu/badndp/ingraham_joseph.html.

Location of Papers

• University of Alabama

Photo from The House of Beadle and Adams and Its Dime and Nickel Novels: The Story of a Vanished Literature by Albert Johannsen, University of Oklahoma Press.

Last updated on Nov 14, 2009.