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Christopher Pearse Cranch (March 8, 1813 - January 20, 1892) was a United States writer and artist. Cranch was born in the District of Columbia. He attended Columbian College and Harvard Divinity School. He briefly held a position as a Unitarian minister. However, his involvement with the transcendentalist school diminished the demand for his services. Later, he pursued various occupations: a magazine editor, caricaturist, children's fantasy writer (the Huggermugger books), poet (The Bird and the Bell with Other Poems in 1875), translator, and landscape painter. He is now remembered chiefly in connection with the Transcendentalists. His caricatures of Ralph Waldo Emerson were later collected as Illustrations of the New Philosophy: Guide. He edited for a time a Transcendentalist publication, and was a member of the Transcendental Club. He resided mostly in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a painter, Cranch painted landscapes allong the lines of Thomas Cole, the Hudson river school, and the Barbazon school in France. In one foray into historical painting, Cranch depicted the burning of P. T. Barnum's American Museum in New York City. Later in life, Cranch painted scenes from Venice and Italy.
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