Ridpath, John Clark

Ridpath, John Clark, 1840–1900, American educator and author, b. Putnam co., Ind., grad. Indiana Asbury College (now DePauw Univ.), 1863. After teaching in Indiana schools, he was successively (1869–85) professor of belles lettres, of history, and of political philosophy at Indiana Asbury, serving also, after 1879, as vice president. He was instrumental in interesting the industrialist Washington Charles DePauw in the college, which was renamed in his honor. He wrote biographies of James G. Blaine, James A. Garfield, William E. Gladstone, and James Otis and popular histories of the United States and of the world, which have been frequently reissued. He was also editor in chief of the Ridpath Library of Universal Literature (25 vol., 1898; rev. ed. 1906).