Charles Henry Webb

[1] He spent three years at sea, and was then taken on by The New York Times[2] where he covered the front lines of the Civil War.

[3] In his regular column for the Era in December 1863, he announced that he and Bret Harte "laid our heads together over a Mint Julep... [and] determined to start a paper" of their own.

[6] When his friend Mark Twain had difficulty finding a publisher for his first collection of sketches, Webb offered to take on the project himself.

Webb served as both editor and publisher for The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches When it was released under the American News Company imprint in 1867, Twain reported to a newspaper, "[Webb] has gotten it up in excellent style, and has done everything to suit his own taste, which is excellent.

"[7] In 1867, Webb wrote St. Twel'mo, or the Cuneiform Cyclopedist of Chattanooga, a parody of the novel St. Elmo by Augusta Evans Wilson which had sold over a million copies within four months of its publication the year before.