LESTER, Charles Edwards, author, born in Griswold, Connecticut, 15 July, 1815. He is descended from Jonathan Edwards in the maternal line. He was admitted to the bar, but afterward spent two years at Auburn theological seminary, and began to preach. He had to abandon the pulpit on account of frequent haemorrhages from the lungs, and to go abroad for his health. He visited Great Britain in 1840, was soon afterward appointed United States consul at Genoa, Italy, where he remained six years. Since his return he has resided in New York city, devoting himself to literature. Besides contributing to American and European periodicals, he has edited various journals and magazines. His works include "The Glory and Shame of England" (2 vols., New York, 1841); "Condition and Fate of England" (1842); "The Artist, Merchant, and Statesman" (1845); "Life and Voyages of Americus Vespucius" (1846); "Artists in America" (1846); "My Consulship" (2 vols., 1851); "The Napoleon Dynasty, a History of the Bonaparte Family, by the Berkeley Men" (1852); "Life and Public Services of Charles Sumner" (1874); "Our First Hundred Years" (1874); "America's Advancement" (1878); "The Mexican Republic" (1878); and a "History of the United States, considered in Five Great Periods" (2 vols. 1883). He has also translated Alfieri's "Autobiography" (1845); Massimo d'Azeglio's "Challenge of Barletta" (1845); Machiavelli's "Florentine Histories" (1846); and Cebaz's "Citizen of a Republic" (1846).