William O. Stoddard

William O. Stoddard (1835–1925) was an American journalist, inventor and author. As a young newspaper editor in Illinois he supported Abraham Lincoln, and during the Civil War he served as one of Lincoln's secretaries in the White House, later writing an important memoir, Inside the White House in War Times, and a life of Lincoln. He wrote biographies of several presidents and more than seventy books for boys, among them Dab Kinzer, The Errand Boy of Andrew Jackson and Ahead of the Army, combining adventure with American history. He also patented a number of inventions.