The Life and Times of the Eccentric Lorenzo Dow

American Antiquarian Society 185 Salisbury Street Worcester, MA 01609 United States Lorenzo Dow (1777-1834) was the most famous preacher in America during the early nineteenth century. An itinerant known as “Crazy Dow,” he spent three decades roaming the United States and Britain, preaching, publishing, provoking audiences, and building one of the first truly national celebrity followings in American history. He was a character who got people’s attention, for better or for worse. In an era before electronic media, the face and the voice of “Crazy Dow” were recognizable from Natchez, Mississippi, to Belfast, Ireland, and his countless broadsides, pamphlets, and books spread his influence even farther. In this hybrid talk, Seth Perry explores how Dow built his fame and what his remarkable career can teach us about religion, celebrity, and the origins of a very American style of public influence that continues to shape the nation today. Seth Perry is associate professor of religion in America at Princeton University. His first book, Bible Culture and Authority in the Early United States (2018) explores the performative, rhetorical, and material aspects of bible-based authority in early-national America. His work has appeared in Church History, Early American Studies, the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, the William and Mary Quarterly, Slate, among others. His second book, American Preacher: The Life and Times of the Eccentric Lorenzo Dow, will be published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in November 2026. Perry was a Reese Fellow at AAS in 2009-10 and in 2018-19.