Nathaniel Parker Willis

Nathaniel Parker Willis (January 20, 1806 – January 20, 1867) was an American writer, poet and magazine editor. For a time, he was paid more money than any other writer in the United States. He worked together with famous authors like Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. His brother Richard Storrs Willis was a composer of music, and his sister Sara was also a writer. As a writer, Sara used the name Fanny Fern. For many years, Harriet Jacobs was working as a nanny for his children. While she was doing that work, she also wrote a famous book called "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl".
Willis studied at Yale College. During that time he started to publish poems. After that, he worked as a journalist for a newspaper, the "New York Mirror". In 1846, he started his own magazine, the "Home Journal". The "Home Journal" later became "Town and Country" and still exists today. He used his money to build a big house near the Hudson River in the state of New York. When he died, most American people had already forgotten him.