Titus Munson Coan

Titus Munson Coan was a good conversationalist, interested in art and music and of varied literary activities. His life work did not begin in that direction, for he took his medical degree in 1861 and served as surgeon in Farragut’s squadron during the Civil War. But he turned to miscellaneous literary work as soon as the war was over, acting as Literary Editor of the Independent in the early seventies; preparing a geographical supplement to Webster’s Dictionary and a Dictionary of Proper Names for the Standard, and serving as member of the Simplified Spelling Board. He established thirty-five years ago a “Bureau of Revision” for the manuscripts of aspiring authors; almost the first of the numerous institutions of that kind which, for a consideration, will not only peruse the products of unappreciated genius, but will impart the secret of how to discover appreciative publishers for manuscripts which have been traveling an endless circle; thereby removing from the path of obscure but conscious merit the obstacles which aspirants for literary fame are aware is imposed by that hardened profession.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1922 Century Association Yearbook