Essays on the Powers of the Human Mind. Volume 1

An Irish born writer of adventurous stories, meant mostly for children, Reid took after Daniel Defoe and James Fenimoore Cooper in his novels in combining personal experience with an intention to teach. In addition to being a writer, producing Oceola, The Seminol (1858) and the most well-known The Headless Horseman (1865), he worked in a myriad and one occupations, from a merchant to a hunter and from a tutor to a newspaper reporter, editor and slave driver. Often, when vicious critics attacked Edgar Allan Poe's work following his death, Reid selflessly defended his dear friend's brilliance.