In this timeless story by John Townsend Trowbridge, "Father Brighthopes" gains his cheery name by always looking at the bright side of difficulties, however great or small. When Father Brighthopes visits the Roydens on for "an old clergyman's vacation," the few weeks he spent with his friends wrought a marked and pleasant change in their lives. The success of "Father Brighthopes" was immediate in its day: people of the most opposed sectarian views united in accepting "Father Brighthopes" as the embodiment of practical Christianity. "Father Brighthopes," who also made appearances in many Civil War era's children's magazines, could have been every child's favorite uncle. Trowbridge presented the retired fictional clergyman as a wise, kindly, and cheerful soul who surrounded himself with children eager to discuss pressing moral issues. In the words of one critic, Trowbridge "knows the heart of a boy and the heart of a man, and laid them both open in his books." Others wrote that Father Brighthopes was "one of the most genial, spirited, and pleasant juvenile books" they ever read, and that Trowbridge "writes in a straightforward, simple style, with humor as well as pathos." "Father Brighthhopes," which was published in Boston in 1853, was followed by other books in quick succession, forming what is known as the "Brighthopes Series." Trowbridge, who first wrote under the pen name Paul Creyton, was widely and favorably known as a writer of popular tales and a delineator of New England life.
About the Author: John Townsend Trowbridge (1827-1916) was born in a log cabin his father constructed through the use of wooden pegs. After teaching and working on a farm for one year in Illinois, he settled in New York City where he wrote for journals and magazines. He moved to Boston in August of 1848, and in 1850, during the absence of Benjamin Perley Poore in Washington, D. C., edited Poore's paper, the Sentinel, but his editorial on the fugitive-slave law nearly destroyed the paper's popularity. His novels include Neighbor Jackwood, an antislavery novel; The Old Battle-Ground; Cudjo's Cave; The Three Scout; Lucy Arlyn; Neighbors' Wives; Coupon Bonds, and Other Stories; and Farnell's Folly. Trowbridge also wrote numerous works under the pseudonym of Paul Creyton. In Darius Green and his Flying Machine, Trowbridge penned the following prophetic verse: "Darius was clearly of the opinion / That the air is also man's dominion / And that with paddle or fin or pinion, / We soon or late shall navigate / The azure as now we sail the sea." Since his death he has been well known as a friend of Mark Twain and Walt Whitman.