Samuel G. Blythe was born in Manchester, England, on September 15, 1798. He emigrated to the United States in 1822, settling first in New York City, then in Philadelphia. In 1829 he moved to Massachusetts, where he became an apprentice printer at the age of eighteen
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Blythe began his newspaper career at the age of twenty-one, editing a newspaper of his own in Belchertown, Massachusetts. He later worked for newspapers in Boston and Albany before returning to Philadelphia in 1836. He published his first book of poetry that same year.
During his lifetime he wrote over fifty books on subjects ranging from history and biography to politics and literature. His best known work is The Life of Mahomet (1845), which was praised by John Stuart Mill as "a most valuable book." From 1857 to 1875 he served as United States consul at Liverpool. Samuel G.
Blythe died in London on March 19, 1900.