Nathaniel Parker Willis (January 20, 1806 – January 20, 1867), also known as N. P. Willis, is an American author, poet and editor who works with several notable American writers including Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
He becomes the highest-paid magazine writer of his day.
For a time, he is the employer of former slave and future writer Harriet Jacobs.
His brother is the composer Richard Storrs Willis and his sister Sara writes under the name Fanny Fern.
Born in Portland, Maine, Willis comes from a family of publishers.
His grandfather Nathaniel Willis owns newspapers in Massachusetts and Virginia, and his father Nathaniel Willis is the founder of Youth's Companion, the first newspaper specifically for children.
Willis develops an interest in literature while attending Yale College and begins publishing poetry.
After graduation, he works as an overseas correspondent for the New York Mirror.
He eventually moves to New York and begins to build his literary reputation.
Working with multiple publications, he is earning about one hundred dollars per article and between five thousand and ten thousand dollars per year.
In 1846, he starts his own publication, the Home Journal, which is eventually renamed Town & Country.
Shortly after, Willis moves to a home on the Hudson Rive,r where he lives a semi-retired life until his death in 1867.
Willis embeds his own personality into his writing and addresses his readers personally, specifically in his travel writings, so that his reputation is built in part because of his character.
Critics, including his sister in her novel Ruth Hall, occasionally describe him as being effeminate and Europeanized.
Willis also publishes several poems, tales, and a play.
Despite his intense popularity for a time, at his death Willis is nearly forgotten.
