{{Short description|American scholar and author (1820–1874)}} {{infobox person | image = Charles_Astor_Bristed_-_Brady-Handy.jpg | name = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1820|10|06}} | birth_place = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1874|01|14|1820|10|06}} | death_place = [[Washington, D.C.]], U.S. | education = | alma_mater = [[Yale College]]<br>[[Trinity College, Cambridge]] | known_for = | occupation = Scholar, author | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Laura Whetten Brevoort<br>|1847|1861|reason=her death}} * {{marriage|Grace Ashburner Sedgwick<br>|1867|1874}} }} | children = 2 | parents = John Bristed<br>Magdalena Astor | family = [[Astor family]] }}
'''Charles Astor Bristed''' (October 6, 1820 – January 14, 1874)<ref name="CABObit1874"/> was an American scholar and author, sometimes writing under the [[pen name]] '''Carl Benson'''.<ref>Haynes, John Edward. ''Pseudonyms of Authors: Including Anonyms and Initialisms''. New York, 1882.</ref> He was the first American to write a full-length defense of [[American English|Americanisms]] and is the earliest known person to use the term "[[conspiracy theory]]".<ref name="nyt">{{cite news |last1=Bristed |first1=C. A. |title=English Insincerity on the Slavery Question. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96772461/first-use-of-conspiracy-theory-by/ |access-date=2 March 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=11 January 1863 |pages=3}}</ref>
==Biography== Charles was born in [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]], the son of the Reverend John Bristed, an Episcopal clergyman from a New England family,<ref name="CABObit1874"/> and Magdalena Astor.<ref name="Miller2015">{{cite news|last1=Miller|first1=Tom|title=Daytonian in Manhattan: The Lost Astor Estate "Hellgate" 87th and East End Ave|url=https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-lost-astor-estate-hellgate-87th-and.html|accessdate=30 April 2018|work=Daytonian in Manhattan|date=27 July 2015}}</ref> After his mother's death in 1832, Charles went to live his with grandparents, fur-trader [[John Jacob Astor]] and Sarah Todd at their home, "[[John Jacob Astor#Fortune from fur trade|Hellgate]]" where many famous writers of the day, including [[Washington Irving]] and [[Fitz-Greene Halleck]], visited.<ref name="Miller2015"/> His mother was the eldest child of John Jacob Astor and his maternal uncle was [[William Backhouse Astor Sr.]]<ref name="lehigh">{{cite web|title=Bristed, Charles Astor (1820-1874) {{!}} The Vault at Pfaff's|url=https://pfaffs.web.lehigh.edu/node/54204|website=pfaffs.web.lehigh.edu|publisher=[[Lehigh University|The Vault at Pfaff's An Archive of Art and Literature by the Bohemians of Antebellum New York]]|accessdate=30 April 2018}}</ref>
He graduated from [[Yale College]] in 1839 with honors, and from [[Trinity College, Cambridge|Trinity College]], [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]], [[England]], in 1845, taking numerous prizes and being made a foundation scholar of the college.<ref>{{acad|id=BRST840CA|name=Bristed, Charles <nowiki>[Astor]</nowiki>}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=Five years in an English university | url=https://archive.org/details/fiveyearsinanen00brisgoog | first=Charles Astor | last=Bristed | publisher=G. P. Putnam | year=1852 }}</ref>
==Career== He returned to the United States in 1847. Bristed amused himself by contributing articles, poetical translations, critical papers on the classics, and sketches of society to various journals, and in 1849 edited ''Selections from [[Catullus]]'', for school use. In 1850, he published "Letters to the Hon. [[Horace Mann]]", being a reply to some strictures upon the characters of Girard and Astor. In 1852, a collection of his sketches on New York Society entitled "The [[Upper Ten Thousand]]", appeared in the ''Fraser Magazine''. At the same time, he published ''Five Years in an English University'', in which he described the manners, customs, and mode of life but little understood in the United States.<ref name="lehigh"/>
Bristed exhibited in his writings a keen appreciation of men and books.<ref>Bowerman, Sarah G. "Charles Astor Bristed." [[Dictionary of American Biography]]. Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale, 2006. http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC</ref> His wide scholarship makes his essays valuable and marks his criticisms with the best qualities of a trained university man. He also published many clever poetical translations from the classics. In his later years, Bristed resided in [[Washington, D.C.]] He was a frequent contributor to the ''Galaxy'' under the pen-name "Carl Benson", and published ''The Interference Theory of Governments'', a book denunciatory of [[tariff]] and prohibitory liquor laws, and ''Pieces of a Broken-down Critic''.<ref name="lehigh"/> Bristed was also one of the trustees of the [[Astor Library]] from its founding.<ref name="lehigh"/>
He made the earliest known use of the term "[[conspiracy theory]]", in a letter to the editor published in ''[[The New York Times]]'' on January 11, 1863.<ref name="nyt" /> Bristed used it to refer to claims that British aristocrats were intentionally [[United Kingdom and the American Civil War|weakening the United States during the American Civil War]] in order to advance their financial interests.<ref name="nyt" />
==Personal life== Upon his return to New York in 1847, Bristed married his first wife, Laura Whetten Brevoort (1823–1861), sister of [[J. Carson Brevoort|James Carson Brevoort]].<ref>Clarke, Robert Gordon. [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rclarke/page1/brevoort.htm Early New Netherlands Settlers]. Retrieved on May 8, 2014.</ref>
After his first wife's untimely death of heart disease,<ref name="LWBObit1861">{{cite news|title=Died. BRISTED|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1861/08/24/news/died.html|accessdate=30 April 2018|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=24 August 1861}}</ref> he married Grace Ashburner Sedgwick (1833–1897), the daughter of [[Sedgwick Pie|Charles Sedgwick]] and Elizabeth Buckminster Dwight, by whom he had two sons and a daughter:<ref name="Cyclopædia"/><ref name="Almanac1911">{{cite book|title=The World Almanac and Book of Facts|date=1911|publisher=Press Publishing Company (The New York World)|page=523|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vuM-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA523|accessdate=30 April 2018|language=en}}</ref>
* John Jacob Astor Bristed (1847–1880),<ref name="Gertz">{{cite web|last1=Gertz|first1=Janet Elaine|title=Guide to the Charles Astor Bristed, Jr. Papers|url=https://drs.library.yale.edu/HLTransformer/HLTransServlet?stylename=yul.ead2002.xhtml.xsl&pid=mssa:ms.0960&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes|website=library.yale.edu|publisher=[[Sterling Memorial Library]] [[Yale University Library]]|accessdate=30 April 2018|language=English}}{{Dead link|date=November 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> who died in his 32nd year.<ref name="JJABObit1880">{{cite news|title=DIED. BRISTED|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1880/06/29/archives/obituary-2-no-title.html|accessdate=30 April 2018|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=29 June 1880}}</ref> * Charles Astor Bristed, Jr. (1869–1936)<ref name="CABObit1936">{{cite news|title=CHARLES A. BRISTED DIES AT THE OPERA; Member of an Old' New-York Family Is Stricken in Box at the Metropolitan, HE WAS EDUCATED ABROAD His Grandmother Was Magdalen Astor, Eldest Child of the First John Jacob Astor|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1936/02/11/archives/gharles-a-bristed-dies-at-the-opera-member-of-an-old-newyork-family.html|accessdate=30 April 2018|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=11 February 1936}}</ref> **Mary Rosa Donnelly (1866–1931) - Married in 1894 **Clementina Hill (1880–1958) - Married in 1932.<ref name="CABObit1936"/> * Cecilia Bristed, an adopted daughter<ref name="1874Will">{{cite news|title=Charles Astor Bristed's Will.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1874/02/17/archives/charles-astor-bristeds-will.html|accessdate=30 April 2018|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=17 February 1874}}</ref> who inherited most of the estate of her brother, John.<ref name="1881Estate">{{cite news|title=Brilliant Promises Not Kept.; the Unproductive Life of the Late John Jacob Astor Bristed.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1881/01/23/archives/brilliant-promises-not-kept-the-unproductive-life-of-the-late-john.html|accessdate=30 April 2018|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=January 23, 1881}}</ref>
Bristed died in [[Washington, D.C.]], on January 14, 1874.<ref name="CABObit1874">{{cite news|title=The Late Charles Astor Bristed.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1874/01/16/archives/the-late-charles-astor-bristed.html|accessdate=30 April 2018|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=January 16, 1874}}</ref><ref name="Cyclopædia">''The National Cyclopædia of American Biography'', Volume 6. New York: James T. White & Company (1929) 366.</ref> His funeral was held in [[Stockbridge, Massachusetts]].<ref name="1874Funeral">{{cite news|title=Funeral of the Late Charles Astor Bristed.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1874/01/18/archives/funeral-of-the-late-charles-astor-bristed.html|accessdate=30 April 2018|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=January 18, 1874}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== *{{Wikisource author-inline}} *{{Commonscat-inline}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Charles Astor Bristed}} * {{Librivox author |id=10665}} * {{fg|158271632}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bristed, Charles Astor}} [[Category:Astor family|Charles]] [[Category:Yale College alumni]] [[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]] [[Category:1820 births]] [[Category:1874 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century American male writers]]