George Tucker (politician)

George Tucker (August 20, 1775 - April 10, 1861) was a United States author and politician.

Biography

Tucker was born in Bermuda, and educated at College of William & Mary, where he studied law under St. George Tucker. After practicing law in Richmond, Virginia he moved to Lynchburg, Virginia. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1819 to 1825, representing Virginia in the 16th, 17th, and 18th United States Congresses. In 1827 he wrote the satire A Voyage to the Moon using the pseudonym "Joseph Atterley." It is considered by some to be the first American work of science fiction.

Tucker was appointed by Thomas Jefferson to be Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Virginia. In 1845 he resigned from the University and moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He died from injuries sustained when a large bale of cotton being loaded on a ship in Mobile Bay fell on his head. After his injury he was removed to Albemarle County, Virginia, where he died on April 10, 1861. He is buried at the University of Virginia Cemetery.

Works

• Letters on the Conspiracy of Slaves in Virginia (Richmond, 1800)
• Letters on the Roanoke Navigation (1811)
• Recollections of Eleanor Rosalie Tucker (Lynchburg, 1819)
• Essays on Subjects of Taste, Morals, and National Policy, under the pen-name “A Citizen of Virginia” (Georgetown, 1822)
• Tucker, George (1824), The valley of Shenandoah; or, Memoirs of the Graysons. With an introd. by Donald R. Noble, Jr (1970 Reprint of the 1824 ed.), Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 0-8078-4055-6, LCCN 70123106  This was reprinted in England and translated into German.
• Tucker, George (1827), A voyage to the moon: with some account of the manners and customs, science and philosophy, of the people of Morosofia, and other lunarians, New York: E. Bliss, LCCN 032392 
• Principles of Rent, Wages, and Profits (Philadelphia, 1837)
• Public Discourse on the Literature of the United States (Charlottesville, 1837)
• Life of Thomas Jefferson, with Parts of his Correspondence (Philadelphia and London, 1837)
• The Theory of Money and Banks Investigated (Boston, 1839)
• Essay on Cause and Effect (Philadelphia, 1842)
• Essay on the Association of Ideas (1843)
• Public Discourse on the Dangers most Threatening to the United States (Washington, 1843)
• Progress of the United, States in Population and Wealth in Fifty Years (New York, 1843)
• Memoir of the Life and Character of Dr. John P. Emmet (Philadelphia, 1845)
• Correspondence with Alexander H. Everett on Political Economy (1845)
• Tucker, George (1856), The history of the United States, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., LCCN 022948 
• Banks or No Banks (New York, 1857)
• Tucker, George (1859), Political economy for the people, Philadelphia: C. Sherman & Son, LCCN 0521928 
• Essays, Moral and Philosophical (1860)
• Tucker, George (1977), A century hence : or, A romance of 1941; edited with an introd. by Donald R. Noble, Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, LCCN 76041223 

He contributed to many newspapers and magazines, and wrote some of the papers in William Wirt's British Spy, signing them “An Enquirer.”

References

• Cousin, John William (1910). " Tucker, George". A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons. Wikisource
•  Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1900). "Tucker, Thomas Tudor". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton. 

External links

• Works by George Tucker at Project Gutenberg, specifically:
  • The Text of A Voyage to the Moon(1827), with a contemporaneous review.
• George Tucker (politician) at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• George Tucker at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• "The Life of George Tucker," Excerpted from The Life and Philosophy of George Tucker, Edited and introduced by James Fieser
• Free public domain ebook: The life of Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States: with parts of his correspondence never before published
• The valley of Shenandoah; or, Memoirs of the Graysons ... Digital images of the 1824 edition