Editing Henry Ward Beecher (section)

===Background===
[[File:Henry-Ward-Beecher.jpg|thumb|right|Statue of Henry Ward Beecher in [[Downtown Brooklyn]], New York]]
Henry Ward Beecher was a prolific author as well as speaker. His public writing began in Indiana, where he edited an agricultural journal, ''The Farmer and Gardener''.<ref name=Appletons/> He was one of the founders and for nearly twenty years an editorial contributor of the New York [[The Independent (New York)|''Independent'']], a Congregationalist newspaper, and from 1861 till 1863 was its editor. His contributions to this were signed with an asterisk, and many of them were afterward collected and published in 1855 as ''Star Papers; or, Experiences of Art and Nature''.<ref name=Appletons/>

In 1865, [[Robert E. Bonner]] of the ''New York Ledger'' offered Beecher twenty-four thousand dollars to follow his sister's example and compose a novel;{{sfn|Applegate|2006|p=353}} the subsequent novel, ''Norwood, or Village Life in New England'', was published in 1868. Beecher stated his intent for ''Norwood'' was to present a heroine who is "large of soul, a child of nature, and, although a Christian, yet in childlike sympathy with the truths of God in the natural world, instead of books."{{sfn|McDougall|2009|p=549}} McDougall describes the resulting novel as "a New England romance of flowers and bosomy sighs ... 'new theology' that amounted to warmed-over [[Ralph Waldo Emerson|Emerson]]".{{sfn|McDougall|2009|p=549}} The novel was moderately well received by critics of the day.{{sfn|Applegate|2006|p=377}} In 1964 sculptor [[Joseph Kiselewski]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sculpture |url=https://www.kiselewskisculpture.com/ |access-date=2023-04-06 |website=Joseph Kiselewski |language=en}}</ref> created a bronze medal depicting Henry Ward Beecher for the [[Hall of Fame for Great Americans]] at the Bronx Community College in New York City. The sculptor [[John Massey Rhind]] created the Hall's bust of Beecher.