December 22, 1852

Opie Read was born in Nashville, Tennessee. Read, a newspaperman who cofounded the comic newspaper The Arkansas Traveler, wrote several successful novels. In his heyday, Read was one of the best-paid novelists in America. Arkansas provided much of the education for this newspaperman, author, and lecturer as he worked for three Little Rock (Pulaski County) newspapers: the Arkansas Gazette, the Arkansas Evening Democrat, and the Evening Ledger. His work as city editor and his associations with the state’s antebellum elite provided him with decades of literary material.