Park Benjamin (14 August 1809-12 September 1864) was a poet, critic, editor, literary agent, and lecturer who is best remembered for his contributions to the New York literary scene in the 1840s. The son of a shoemaker turned schooner captain and the cultured daughter of a Barbados planter, Benjamin was born at the family plantation in Demerara, British Guiana. His childhood was troubled by a series of illnesses that ultimately left one leg atrophied, a deformity his enemies would savagely point to decades later during the literary wars in New York.

In 1813 Benjamin was sent to the United States to live with relatives in Norwich, Connecticut. By 1816 he had begun his schooling at the first of a succession of schools and colleges, which included Bacon Academy, Linden Hall, Harvard College, Washington College (now Trinity College), and both Harvard and Yale law schools. It was during his first sojourn at Harvard...