Joseph Coleman Hart (1798 - 1855)

Joseph Coleman Hart

Joseph Coleman Hart was an American author, lawyer, and public servant of the first half of the 19th century.

Hart had a law degree, served as a colonel in the National Guard and as a school principal. During this period he wrote a number of geography textbooks that were widely used. He was a longtime resident of New York City and was friends with several literary men and worked as a journalist. At the end of his life, he served as the American consul in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

Joseph Hart is best known today as the author of the novel Miriam Coffin, or The Whale Fishermen (1834). America's first whaling novel was originally written in part to encourage congressional support for whaling. But it is better known today for being the precursor to Herman Melville's famous novel Moby Dick.