City Readers Digital Historic Collections at the New York Society Library

Anthony Bleecker, a lawyer and author, was born on October 27, 1770, in New York. He graduated from Columbia College in 1791, and worked as an attorney, serving as Examiner in Chancery (Greene 16). He also contributed prose and verse to periodicals, newspapers and literary journals, often not under his own name, including publications such as The New York Magazine, or Literary Repository (Greene 16). He published "Narrative of the Brig Commerce" in London in 1817, which went through three editions (Greene 16). He was a member of the Bread and Cheese Club, a literary society begun by James Fenimore Cooper that included Bleecker's companions Washington Irving and William Cullen Bryant (Adkins 74; Greene 17). He served as secretary of the New York City Dispensary, was secretary of the Board of Trustees of the New York Society Library from 1810-1827, and was one of the founders of the New-York Historical Society (Greene 232-233).

Bleecker was the son of merchant and Library member Anthony Lispenard Bleecker and Mary Noel. He was the brother of Library members Garrat N. Bleecker, William Bleecker, John Bleecker, and James Bleecker.

Bleecker died in 1827.