newspaper reference identifying "Mr. Wright" as Coverly's hack – all tend to make him a very plausible candidate." Nathaniel Coverly was the son of a printer who made a scarce living in Boston by printing cheap pamphlets and broadsides to appeal to the general public. Coverly was an intelligent entrepreneur that knew how to cash in on the citizens patriotism, especially during times of national affairs like the War of 1812. He also knew how to appeal to the prurient passions of his readers, a likely incentive for him to print a series such as The Female Marine. In 1815, Coverly released a pamphlet entitled “The Affecting Narrative of Louisa Baker”, allegedly written by a fake author Luther Wales and printed in New York. Coverly dropped these securities when his pamphlets became a hit, and advertised the second and third episodes in the series with his name as the printer. There is much discrepancy over the true authorship of The Female Marine, and although it is possible Coverly himself wrote the three pamphlets, it is more likely they were developed by a hack author in his employ. A unidentified newspaper reference (found in the collections of the American Antiquarian Society) at the time suggests that Coverly “kept a poet, or ready writer, who manufactured for him all prose and verse articles which were called for by the occasions of the time.” This author, Mr. Nathaniel Hill Wright, was described as “a comical genius, who could do the grave or the gay, as necessity demanded, and with equal facility.” Such qualifications make a versatile genius like Wright the ideal author for the playful and eclectic story of the Female Marine. Nathaniel Hill Wright was an obscure printer, publisher, editor and poet born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1787 as the youngest son of Amos Wright, a local tavern keeper. Wright wrote and produced several volumes of verse under his own name in the early 19th century, but like Coverly, struggled to stay afloat while taking care of his wife and small child, especially during the war. While no written evidence proves that Wright wrote The Female Marine, the evidence, as stated by David Cohen, is strong to support that Wright was the true author. Historical context The Female Marine was first published in 1815, directly after the conclusion of the War of 1812, and features an autobiographical account of many famous events