Fort Lafayette; Or, Love and Secession (Dodo Press) (Paperback)

Benjamin Wood (1820-1900) was a nineteenth- century American politician from the state of New York during the American Civil War. In 1860, he purchased the New York Daily News. In 1861 the federal government effectively shut down the paper (by suspending its delivery via the postal service) as being sympathetic with the enemy. Wood was able to re-open the paper 18 months later. During the interval, he wrote one novel Fort Lafayette; or, Love and Secession (1862). His wife, Ida Wood, became a famous recluse and miser whose true identity became the subject of a famous court case after her death in 1932, the story of which is told in Joseph Cox's book The Recluse of Herald Square.