James Strange French was born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, in 1807.
[1] He was educated at the College of William & Mary and the University of Virginia, then read law with his uncle Robert Strange in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Meriwether B. Brodnax (sometimes written Merewether B. Broadnax) was a prosecutor of Northampton County.
Edgar Allan Poe published a critical review of it in Southern Literary Messenger in 1836.
French married Laura J. George on June 6, 1850, in "Willow Grove", Tazewell County, Virginia.