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William H. Hurlburt

Short Name: William H. Hurlburt
Full Name: Hurlburt, William Henry, 1827-1895
Birth Year: 1827
Death Year: 1895

Hurlburt, William Henry, was born at Charlestown, South Carolina, July 23, 1827, and educated at Harvard. He also studied at Berlin, Paris, and Rome. In 1848 he contributed the following hymns to Longfellow and Johnson's Unitarian Book of Hymns;—
1. My God, in life's most doubtful hour. Faith desired, or, the Power of Trust.
2. We pray for truth and peace. Faith desired.
3. We will not weep, for God is standing by us. The Might of Faith. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology

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Hurlburt (Hurlbut, Hurlbert), William Henry. (Charleston, South Carolina, July 3, 1827--September 4, 1895, Cadenabbia, Lake Como, Italy). His family name is spelled Hurlburt in records at Charleston, but at Harvard he was registered as Hurlbut, and in later years he changed the spelling to Hurlbert. He graduated from Harvard College in 1847 and from the Divinity School in 1849. He preached in Unitarian pulpits for a few months, but was never ordained as a settled minister. He studied at the Harvard Law School for a year, then turned to journalism in New York City. After 1883, he spent most of his time in Europe, his last few years in Italy. As a student at Harvard he was a contemporary of Samuel Longfellow and Samuel Johnson and contributed three hymns to their Book of Hymns, edition of 1848, which they also included in their Hymns of the Spirit, 1864. In both books his surname is spelled Hurlbut.

--Henry Wilder Foote, DNAH Archives

Wikipedia Biography

William Henry Hurlbert (July 3, 1827—September 4, 1895) was an American journalist and the possible author of “The Diary of a Public Man,” published in the North American Review in 1879. His responsibility for the Diary—once dubbed the “most gigantic” problem of uncertain authorship in American historical writing—was carefully concealed and has only recently been established.

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