H.C. Bunner was born in Oswego, New York, on August 3, 1855. The poet, author, artist, and editor was a descendant of the sons and daughters of the American Revolution. Founding Father Alexander Hamilton was his great uncle, through his marriage to Elizabeth Schuyler, the daughter of General Philip Schuyler. Raised in Oswego, he was later educated in New York City in the private library at the home of his uncle, the noted essayist Henry Theodore Tuckerman.
At twenty-three, he became editor of Puck magazine, a position he held until his death from tuberculosis at forty-one. A passionate advocate of the democratic process, Bunner viewed the problems of nineteenth-century immigrants (including racketeering, unionization, and political corruption) as an American dilemma. His vision to utilize Puck as the forum to expose their hardships generated strong public opinion and transformed the failing German language periodical into America’s first successful political comic weekly. At its height, Puck informed a readership of more than eighty thousand and facilitated the creation of the Independent Party.
As a writer, Bunner was the first to bring to the forefront the radical concept and format of New York City as a creative resource, exemplified by his 1883 essay, “New York as a Field for Fiction.” Bunner’s genre, “The New York Story,” published in Puck, Scribner’s, and Century, focused on the drama and hopes of the immigrant, the poor, and the new middle-class as they attempted to carve out meaningful lives in the tenement houses and overcrowded streets of the city. Bunner recognized the importance and worth of these communities and used his magazine as a forum to integrate these individuals into the fabric of American Life. He considered their members the “new Americans.”
Bunner lived the last ten years of his life in his beloved Nutley, New Jersey, commuting from his home on Whitford Avenue to his offices at the Puck Building, in the Nolita neighborhood of Manhattan. He was known locally for his generosity of spirit and was instrumental in organizing the 1,894 Nutley Amateur Circus, which starred his friend Annie Oakley and raised funds for much-needed medical supplies.
ln 1895 Yale University honored Bunner with a Masters of Arts degree, and every year Columbia University awards the H.C. Bunner Gold Medal for the best student essay about American literature.
Henry Cuyler Bunner died in Nutley on May 11, 1896, and is buried in New London, Connecticut.