Caleb Bingham

Caleb Bingham (1757-1817) was a textbook author of late 18th-century New England, whose works were also influential into the 19th and 20th. Among his most influential works were books on oratory, or public speaking. A native of Salisbury, Connecticut, he spent much of his career in Boston, Massachusetts as a publisher and bookseller.

One of his most popular works was The Columbian Orator, originally published in 1797, a work which contained rules on oratory as well as famous speeches for use in practicing. The book has continued in print into the late 20th century.

The Columbian Orator served as an inspiration to many orators, including the African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who purchased a copy as a young man and used it to develop his powerful public speaking style.

Another well-known textbook of Bingham's, also on reading and oratory, was The American Preceptor (1794).

Web Links

The Influence of The Columbian Orator - "E Pluribus Unum Project," Assumption College