PARKMAN, FRANCIS

born Sept. 16, 1823, Boston, Mass., U.S. died Nov. 8, 1893, Jamaica Plain, Mass. American historian noted for his classic seven-volume history of France and England in North America, covering the colonial period from the beginnings to 1763. Additional reading Mason Wade, Francis Parkman: Heroic Historian (1942, reissued 1972), is an excellent one-volume biography; it may be supplemented by Howard Doughty, Francis Parkman (1962, reprinted 1983). Parkman's literary techniques and skills as a writer are explored by Robert L. Gale, Francis Parkman (1973). Criticism and appraisal of Parkman's significance as a historian is in Wilbur R. Jacobs, Francis Parkman, Historian as Hero (1991), which includes a short biography with an analysis of Parkman's illness.