Edward Payson
Roe
(1838- 1888)
America's greatest popular author.
His novels of the nineteenth
century are precious treasures of American literature.
Roe served as a chaplain and war correspondent
for the Union army during the Civil War.
After the war he served as pastor at the
Highland Falls (N.Y) Presbyterian Church.
Roe first turned to a literary career after the
Chicago fire of 1871. Deeply moved by the tragedy,
he visited Chicago and penned his first novel,
Barriers Burned Away,
which proved a tremendous success.
After his novel, Opening a Chestnut Burr,
he realized a new calling and resigned his pastorate.
Roe married Anna Paulina Sands and was the father of
five children. He and his family lived in Cornwall, N.Y.
on the beautiful Hudson River. It was there he died
suddenly of a heart attack at the age of fifty after an
evening reading aloud to his family.
