S. G. Goodrich, better known by his alias Peter Parley, was an American author. Goodrich was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut, the son of a Congregational pastor. Goodrich was primarily self-educated and worked as an assistant in a country store in Danbury, Connecticut, until 1808, and then again in Hartford, Connecticut, until 1811. From 1816 to 1822, he was a bookseller and publisher in Hartford. He traveled Europe from 1823 to 1824 before relocating to Boston in 1826. In 1833, he purchased 45 acres (180,000 m2) in adjacent Roxbury and built his mansion in what is now Jamaica Plain. The Token also includes early works by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Nathaniel Parker Willis, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Lydia Maria Child. In 1841, he founded Merry's Museum, which he edited until 1854. Goodrich collaborated with his brother Charles A. Goodrich to write children's books. His series, launched in 1827 under the name Peter Parley, included geography, biography, history, science, and other stories. He was the sole author of only a few of these, but in 1857 he claimed to have written and edited roughly 170 books, with approximately seven million sold. George Mogridge, an English writer, also used the name Peter Parley, which drew criticism from Goodrich, who had the earlier claim.
