biography
| name: |
Smith, Seba
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pseudonym Major Jack Downing
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1792–1868)
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| biography:
| Journalist and writer, born in Buckfield, Maine, USA. He and his family moved to Bridgton, ME (1799), and he worked in a grocery store, brick yard, and iron foundry. He studied at Bowdoin (1815–18) and travelled in Europe. He became the assistant editor of the Eastern Argus in Portland, ME (1820–6) and founded the Portland Courier (1829). There he began the publication of political and satirical commentaries in the form of letters from ‘Major Downing’ (1830–3), published as The Life and Writings of Major Jack Downing of Downingsville (1833). The success of Smith's Downing letters led several writers to imitate both the name and style, the most notable being Charles Augustus Davis. Smith moved to Charleston, SC (1839), then to New York City to work as an editor and writer, and wrote a second series of Downing letters (1847–59) published as My Thirty Years Out of the Senate (1859). His Way Down East (1854), stories about typical New Englanders, was another popular work. In 1860 he settled in Patchogue, Long Island, NY. |
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