He compiled the travelogues of his uncle, Timothy Dwight IV, previously president of Yale, which he brought to publication in 1821.

In 1825, he published the second tourist guidebook in the United States, The Northern Traveller, which he updated with regular editions until 1841.

[2] A commentator on American society, he wrote a number of works on child rearing and school reform and, in the 1850s and 1860s, passionately advocated for the cause of Garibaldi and the unification of Italy.

Their children were:[1] He died on October 16, 1866, in Brooklyn, New York, from injuries in a train accident while traveling to Newark, New Jersey.

[1] After accompanying his daughter and two grandchildren, he had jumped off the train as it left the station.