Thomas Bulfinch (1796-1867) was an American author born in Newton, Massachusetts. A member of a distinguished Bostonian family, he graduated from Harvard College in 1814, and from 1837 until his death, Bulfinch supported himself by working as a bank clerk at the Merchant's Bank of Boston. He is best known for his collections of mythology, first published in three separate volumes as The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, and Legends of Charlemagne, and later combined into a single volume titled Bulfinch's Mythology. His other works include Hebrew Lyrical History, The Boy Inventor, Shakespeare Adapted for Reading Classes, and Oregon and Eldorado.