Charles Morris was born in Chester, Pennsylvania on October 1, 1833 to Margaret Burns and Samuel Pearson Morris. He began his career as a teacher, first in his hometown and then at the Academy of Ancient and Modern Languages in Philadelphia. From 1860-1878 he worked for a manufacturing company while beginning to publish short stories, poems, and dime novels as serials in magazines such as Beadle's Saturday Journal. By the 1880s he was able to write full-time, and he began publishing biographies, histories, and textbooks, as well as compilations of tales and interviews with popular authors. He continued to author dime novels, many of them under his roughly fifteen pen names.

Morris's works included Half hours with American History (his Half hours with... series also included the Best American authors, the Best Foreign Authors, and the Best Humourous Authors; J.B. Lippincott Company, 1880s) and the Heros of... series (progress in America, the Army in America, and the Navy in America; J.B. Lippincott Company, early 1900s). He also published the Imperial reference library, comprising a general encyclopaedia of literature, history, art, science, invention and discovery (Syndicate Publishing Company, 1910), Morris' cyclopedia, dictionary and atlas of the world (Hampden publishing company, circa 1909), A History of the United States of America (J.B. Lippencott Company, circa 1915), and A graphic history of modern Europe from the French revolution to the great war (G.G. Harrap, 1916).

Morris died September 7, 1922.

Sources:

"Charles Morris Dies". The Morning Call. Philadelphia. September 9, 1922. p. 1.

"Charles Morris". Who Was Who in America. Volume 1, 1897-1942. Accessed via Marquis Biographies Online.

"Obituary: Charles Morris". The Philadelphia Inquirer. September 9, 1922. p. 23.