Thomas Bulfinch
American writer and mythologist (1796-1867)
Thomas Bulfinch (July 15, 1796 – May 27, 1867) was an American author born in Newton, Massachusetts, known best for Bulfinch's Mythology, a posthumous combination of his three volumes of mythologies.
Life
Bulfinch belonged to a well-educated merchant family of modest means. His father was Charles Bulfinch, the architect of the Massachusetts State House in Boston and parts of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Bulfinch attended Boston Latin School, Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1814. His main career was with the Merchants' Bank of Boston.
Bulfinch's Mythology
Bulfinch published a reorganized version of the biblical book of Psalms to illustrate the history of the Hebrews. However, he is known best as the author of Bulfinch's Mythology, an 1881 compilation of his three previous works:
The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes (1855)
The Age of Chivalry, or Legends of King Arthur (1858)
Legends of Charlemagne, or Romance of the Middle Ages (1863)
Bulfinch's Mythology is a classic work of popularized mythology, the standard for more than a century and still in print. The compilation, assembled posthumously by Edward Everett Hale, includes various stories belonging to the mythological traditions known as the Matter of Rome, the Matter of Britain and the Matter of France, respectively. Bulfinch wrote in his preface:
"Our work is not for the learned, nor for the theologian, nor for the philosopher, but for the reader of English literature, of either sex, who wishes to comprehend the allusions so frequently made by public speakers, lecturers, essayists, and poets, and those which occur in polite conversation."
The original volume was dedicated to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Bulfinch described it on the title page as an "attempt to popularize mythology and extend the enjoyment of elegant literature". In his preface he outlined his purpose, which was
"an attempt to solve this problem, by telling the stories of mythology in such a manner as to make them a source of amusement. We have endeavored to tell them correctly, according to the ancient authorities, so that when the reader finds them referred to he may not be at a loss to recognize the reference.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q943991. VIAF identifies the subject as 72195590. The Library of Congress control number is n79131465. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1796, 1867, 1814 and 1881.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thomas Bulfinch” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.