Thomas Bulfinch (July 15, 1796 – May 27, 1867) was an American author born in Newton, Massachusetts, known best for Bulfinch's Mythology, a posthumous combination of his three volumes of mythologies.
Life
Bulfinch belonged to a well-educated merchant family of modest means. His father was Charles Bulfinch, the architect of the Massachusetts State House in Boston and parts of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Bulfinch attended Boston Latin School, Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1814. His main career was with the Merchants' Bank of Boston.
Bulfinch's Mythology
Bulfinch published a reorganized version of the biblical book of Psalms to illustrate the history of the Hebrews. However, he is known best as the author of Bulfinch's Mythology, an 1881 compilation of his three previous works:
The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes (1855)
The Age of Chivalry, or Legends of King Arthur (1858)
Legends of Charlemagne, or Romance of the Middle Ages (1863)
Bulfinch's Mythology is a classic work of popularized mythology, the standard for more than a century and still in print. The compilation, assembled posthumously by Edward Everett Hale, includes various stories belonging to the mythological traditions known as the Matter of Rome, the Matter of Britain and the Matter of France, respectively. Bulfinch wrote in his preface:
"Our work is not for the learned, nor for the theologian, nor for the philosopher, but for the reader of English literature, of either sex, who wishes to comprehend the allusions so frequently made by public speakers, lecturers, essayists, and poets, and those which occur in polite conversation."
