Ebenezer Cook, self-styled poet-laureate of Maryland, has been called the “best American writer of satire before Benjamin Franklin”, a writer who stands at the beginning of a tradition of American folk humour culminating in the works of Mark Twain and William Faulkner. His father, a planter and merchant named Andrew Cook (d. 1712), married Ann Bowyer in London in 1665, and Ebenezer was probably born two years later. Residing in St. Mary’s City – then the capital of Maryland – as early as 1694, Cook and his sister Anna inherited property in Dorchester County called Cooks Point in 1711, after which Cook sold his portion in 1717. Cook was deputy receiver-general under Charles Calvert, the third Baron Baltimore, beginning in 1721 and was allowed to practice law as of 1728. No record…
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Citation: Ring, Richard J.. "Ebenezer Cook". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 March 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=996, accessed 26 November 2024.]
