Charles Morris (1833-1922) was a prolific American writer, novelist and author of popular historical textbooks. He was born in Chester, Pennsylvania. After studying locally he worked as a teacher in Chester, but in 1856 moved to Philadelphia where he became professor of languages at the Academy of Ancient and Modern Languages. He wrote dime novels under a variety of pseudonyms. He also compiled the series Historical Tales: The Romance of Reality (1893-1908). Amongst his other works are Half-Hours With the Best American Authors (1887), Tales From the Dramatists (1893), Half- Hours of Travel at Home and Abroad (1896), Famous Men and Great Events of the Nineteenth Century (1899), A New History of the United States: The Greater Republic (1899), Man and His Ancestor (1900), With the World's Great Travellers (1901), Famous Orators of the World (1902), The San Francisco Calamity by Earthquake and Fire (1906) and Men of Affairs in New York (1906).