Samuel Kettell (August 5, 1800 – December 3, 1855) was an American writer, editor, and literary anthologist. He is best known for compiling Specimens of American Poetry, with Critical and Biographical Notices, a three‑volume anthology published in 1829 by Samuel Griswold Goodrich. The collection, which presented works by 188 American poets and included historical and biographical commentary, is regarded as the first comprehensive anthology of American poetry and was colloquially referred to as “Goodrich’s Kettle of Poetry.”
Kettell also edited the children's periodical Merry's Museum from September 1847 to March 1848. In his literary activities he occasionally used the pseudonym “Sampson Short‑and‑fat.”
Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, Kettell worked as a “hack writer” for Boston publisher Samuel G. Goodrich, contributing articles and editorial material for various publications. His editorial work contributed to the early development of American literary criticism and the promotion of domestic poets during the early nineteenth century.
Kettell died in 1855 at the age of 55. His contributions, particularly the Specimens of American Poetry, remain a valuable reference for scholars of early American literature.
References
- Duyckinck, E. A. (1866). Supplement to the Cyclopædia of American Literature. New York: Scribner.
- Clarke, J. F. (1977). Pseudonyms. BCA, p. 149.
- Burt, D. S. (2004). The Chronology of American Literature. Houghton Mifflin Harvard.
- Vanderbilt, K. (1986). American Literature and the Academy. University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Pflieger, P. (2016). American Children's Periodicals, 1789–1872. Merrycoz Books.