Robert Montgomery Bird

Robert Montgomery Bird (1806-1854) was born in Delaware and lived most of his life in and around Philadelphia. Trained as a physician, Bird abandoned medicine to become a poet dramatist, novelist, and editor. He dabbled restlessly in electoral politics, farming, banking, and teaching, as well as painting and photography. Sheppard Lee was published in 1836, as the purported true tale of the remarkable transformations undergone by its protagonist.
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