ABSTRACT
Charles Bertrand Lewis was born on February 15, 1842 in Liverpool, Ohio. His father, a successful building contractor and man of notable education, moved the family to Michigan when Charles was quite young. There the boy received a public education and pursued a course of study at the Agricultural College of Lansing, Michigan. He found his true calling, however in the composing rooms and editorial offices of small newspapers. As early as fourteen, he began an apprenticeship at the Pontiac, Michigan, Jacksonian and continued in newspaper work, with time out for a stint in the Union Army during the Civil War, for the next sixty-eight years of his life. In 1869, Lewis was hired by the Detroit Free Press as a legislative reporter, in which capacity he served for five years before turning to humor. During this period, he developed his narrative craft by writing dime novels for Beadle and Adams, George Munro and Ballou's Magazine.
