Hall, James

James Hall, (born August 19, 1793, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died July 5, 1868, Cincinnati, Ohio), American author who was one of the earliest to write about the American frontier.

Hall was a soldier in the War of 1812, a lawyer and circuit judge, a newspaper and magazine editor, state treasurer of Illinois (1827–31), a banker in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a writer of history and fiction. In 1828 he compiled the first western literary annual, the Western Souvenir, and he edited the Illinois Monthly Magazine (1830–32), which he continued at Cincinnati until 1836 as the Western Monthly Magazine. He consistently encouraged western contributors. Hall wrote an interesting travel book, Letters from the West (1828); one novel, The Harpe’s Head (1833); a readable survey of western exploration, The Romance of Western History (1857); and several volumes of short stories. Such tales as “Pete Featherton” and “A Legend of Carondelet,” which found a place in many anthologies, early established Hall as a short-story writer of distinction. He was particularly successful in sketching life in the French settlements of the Illinois country and in interpreting such authentic figures as the backwoodsman, voyageur, and Indian hater. His best stories appear in Legends of the West (1832) and Tales of the Border (1835).