Emerson Bennett

Bennett's work frequently appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, The New York Ledger and other periodicals.

He is more remembered as one of the leading novelists of the “yaller kivers” period of mid-nineteenth century American fiction, (so called for the “yellow covers” on the cheap sensational novels sold in railway stations and by newsboys during that era.)

It is known that after leaving home he moved initially to New York City, and then later to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Pittsburgh, eventually relocating to Cincinnati in 1844.

Unable to gain steady employment as a writer, he took work going on the road throughout Ohio selling subscriptions for the Western Literary Journal.

[2][5][7] Although not altogether without artistic merit, Bennett's fiction has been characterized as derivative and formulaic, lacking originality.

Today Bennett is remembered primarily as a figure of historical interest for the depictions he rendered of life on the American frontier.