Kennedy, John Pendleton

Kennedy, John Pendleton (Mark Littleton, Mephistopheles, pen names) (1795–1870) politician, writer; born in Baltimore, Md. He graduated from Baltimore College (1812) and became a lawyer (1816). He devoted himself to both politics and writing; his most highly regarded novels include Swallow Barn (1832) and Rob of the Bowl (1838). He served in the House of Representatives (Whig, Md.; 1838–39, 1841–45). As secretary of the navy (1852–53), he organized several naval expeditions, notably that of Commodore Matthew Perry to Japan.

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Kennedy, John Pendleton 

Born Oct. 25, 1795, in Baltimore; died Aug. 18, 1870, in Newport. American writer and public figure.

Kennedy was a supporter of the North in the Civil War of 1861–65. In the novel Swallow Barn (1832) he described the life of the Virginia planters in humorous terms. A romantic, he was influenced by W. Irving and J. F. Cooper, as evidenced in the historical novel Horse-Shoe Robinson (1835). In the novel Quodlibet (1840) he ridiculed American democracy from a conservative position.

WORKS

At Home and Abroad. [Philadelphia] 1872.

REFERENCES

Istoriia amerikanskoi literatury, vol. 1. Moscow-Leningrad, 1947.
Parrington, V. L. Osnovnye techeniia amerikanskoi mysli, vol. 2. Moscow, 1962.
Bohner, C. H. J. P. Kennedy: Gentleman From Baltimore. Baltimore [1961]. (Contains bibliography, pp. 238–41.)