Bill mentioned enjoying “The Polygon Papers,” a series which ran in The Knickerbocker, but whose author wasn’t credited (at least in the few indexes and tables of contents I consulted). I Googled “polygon papers” and came up with only one reference (to a math paper, imagine that!).

So then I started poking about in Google Books, and see that a 1971 bibliography assigns authorship to Henry William Herbert, also known as Frank Forester, an English-born and English-educated author who emigrated to the US ca. 1830 “to escape his debts.”

Ok. That seems reasonable. But as I looked down the list of books, I saw something a bit unexpected: Statistics of the Class of 1837 of Yale University. There, on page 13, is the entry for

Horace Benjamin Colton, Elba, New York. Transformed in 1837 by assuming the incognito of William Henry Herbert. [Note the transposition of the names.] {some omitted information} Corresponded during most of this time [1837-1849] unknown with various Magazines, particularly with the Knickerbocker, in which among other things he published the “Polygon Papers.” Returned to Lockport and resumed his own name, and is now engaged there in Banking business, 1850.

Wow. So which is it? Confounding matters is a contemporary notice of a book called Bankrupt Stores, edited by Harry Franco which seems to indicate the review thinks that Harry Franco and the author of the “Polygon Papers” is the same person.

… from the slight notice we have been able to take of it, we should consider well worthy of the graphic pen of the celebrated author of the Polygon papers of the Knickerbocker Magazine.

However, “Harry Franco” is really Charles Frederick Briggs, a journalist and author who wrote about life in New York City and edited a magazine with Edgar Allen Poe. Briggs, as Harry Franco, was also a contributor to The Knickerbocker, but he was given a byline for at least one article (“Playing on One String,” April, 1846), and, according to a citation at The Vault at Pfaff’s, was part of the Knickerbocker crowd.

That Franco was given bylines makes me think that he was not the author of the “Polygon Papers.” However, I’m uncertain who was. Was the bibliographer (William Mitchell Van Winkle) incorrect? Or, was Mr. Colton stretching the truth?