Talk:James Kendall Hosmer

A fact from James Kendall Hosmer appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 6 March 2021 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that writer James Kendall Hosmer chose to fight on the front lines in the American Civil War instead of serving on the staff of General Nathaniel P. Banks?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2021/March. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/James Kendall Hosmer.

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Expanded article

New content and sources welcomed. -- Gwillhickers (talk) 20:27, 13 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

DYK nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Cwmhiraeth (talk) 06:43, 2 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

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Article history

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James Kendall Hosmer, August 1921

... that writer James Kendall Hosmer (pictured) upon joining the Union Army during the American Civil War declined a position on the General's staff to instead fight on the front lines? — Hosmer, 1864, pp. V-VI; World Biographical Encyclopedia, Inc.

5x expanded by Gwillhickers (talk). Self-nominated at 23:45, 13 February 2021 (UTC).[reply]

QPQ : Template:Did you know nominations/S.W. Randall Toyes and Giftes

Statement and citations supporting hook found in the 'Civil War' section

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

Image: Image is freely licensed, used in the article, and clear at 100px.
Freely licensed: Used in article: Clear at 100px:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: Thanks for your work to date. I have some questions about the sourcing. Prabook doesn't seem to be a reliable source per its disclaimer (Prabook cannot guarantee the validity of the information found here. What makes Nix a reliable blog? I think the heavy reliance on Hosmer's own works is OK for DYK purposes, but I don't think you can use his own book to source that he authored several definitive works about that war or that he was a a specialist in the affairs of Western history. These claims would need an independent source. Neither his birth nor his death date is sourced in the article. You might consider rephrasing the hook to something like "... that James Kendall Hosmer chose to fight on the front lines in the American Civil War instead of serving on the staff of General Nathaniel P. Banks?" Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 19:42, 18 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Forgot to add the QPQ, which I did some time ago. I removed the terms "definitive" and "specialist". I also supplemented ~~replaced~~ the Nix source with a publication: Dictionary of American Library Biography, Volume 1 Nix was and is quite involved with library work, library historians and librarians, such as Hosmer. You can view his profile here. Yes, Prabook, part of World Biographical Encyclopedia, makes a disclaimer that it can't "guarantee the validity of the information found" there, but it would seem, given the forum and number of knowledgeable writers involved, it is a good enough source to use for basic statements, and in conjunction with other sources/citations, as I've done. However, if you're insisting that we remove this source we can do that.

Per your suggestion for the hook, we can use that but I'd like to leave the term 'writer' in place.

ALT1 : ... that writer James Kendall Hosmer (pictured) chose to fight on the front lines in the American Civil War instead of serving on the staff of General Nathaniel P. Banks? -- Gwillhickers (talk) 01:54, 19 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

OK, fine with keeping 'writer'. I'd like to see Prabook replaced. I don't see how it's more reliable than Wikipedia-- I didn't vandalize, but was able to create an account to be able to edit these pages within five minutes. I cannot see what "number of knowledgeable writers" were involved with it. Cheers, Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 14:16, 20 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The Prabook/World Biographical Encyclopedia citations have been removed. Prabook was used in conjunction with other sources to cite some general statements. -- Gwillhickers (talk) 20:38, 20 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Looks good now, to me Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 03:38, 21 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks for your time and effort. As mentioned in a footnote, finding bio' info on Hosmer has been something of a trial, but I finally found a source, just added to the Bibliography, by Dumas Malone, imo the best source yet, to supplement the other citations. Again, thanks for your efforts. -- Gwillhickers (talk) 05:33, 21 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]