Edward
Everett Hale, grandnephew of the Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale, was born
in 1822. A graduate of Harvard, he became a Unitarian clergyman who for six
years before his death was chaplain of the U.S. Senate. He’d be largely
forgotten today, however, had he not written for The Atlantic Monthly a short
story that appeared in 1863.
Hale’s
fictional account of adventures of “The Man Without a Country” was a thin
veiled report of the travails of Ohio congressman Clement L. Vallandigham.
Vocally opposed to the war, the editor-lawmaker made international news when he
was banished from the United States because of his views.
Today,
Hale’s writing is better known than is Vallandigham’s name.
