John Bigelow

John Bigelow (born Nov. 25, 1817, Bristol, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 19, 1911, New York, N.Y.) was an American author, journalist, and diplomat who was the discoverer and first editor of Benjamin Franklin’s long-lost Autobiography. As U.S. consul in Paris during the American Civil War, he also prevented the delivery of warships constructed in France for the Confederacy. Called to the New York bar in 1838, Bigelow was managing editor and, with the poet William Cullen...