Anthony Bleecker (October 1770 – March 13, 1827) was a lawyer and author who was a friend of Washington Irving and William Cullen Bryant.

[2][3] Bleecker graduated from Columbia University (1791) and studied law, but was reputedly never a successful practitioner principally due to his oratory skills, of which he was ever self-conscious.

[6] Some of them appeared in Samuel Kettell's collection, Specimens of American Poetry,[7] namely the poems "On Revisiting the Cottage of Rosa in Early Spring, after a Long Absence"[8] "Trenton Falls, near Utica"[9] "Jungfrau Spaiger’s Apostrophe to Her Cat.

The book is an autobiographical account that starts with a brief sketch of Riley's life followed by the events after his brig Commerce was shipwrecked in 1815 off the west African coast.

He was an active patron of the arts and sciences, and the literary receptions held at his residence were attended by prominent artists and authors.