George Washington Greene, an American author, born in East Greenwich, R. I., April 8, 1811. He is a grandson of Nathanael Greene, the revolutionary general. He was obliged by ill health to leave Brown university in his junior year in 1827, and resided from that time in Europe, with the exception of a few short visits home, till 1847. From 1837 to 1845 he was United States consul at Rome. Between 1835 and 1850 he published a series of essays in the "North American Review," which were collected in a volume entitled "Historical Studies" (New York, 1850). On his return to the United States he became instructor in modern languages in Brown university, and edited several text books, among which were a new edition of Putz and Arnold's "Ancient Geography and History" (New York, 1849) and a "History and Geography of the Middle Ages" (1851). He furnished the life of Gen. Greene in Sparks's "American Biography," and afterward published separately a "Life of Nathanael Greene" (2 vols. 8vo, New York, 1807-8). In 1860 he published a volume of "Biographical Studies;" in 1865 a "Historical View of the American Revolution;" and in 1866 a criticism of the account of Gen. Greene in Bancroft's history.

In 1872 he was appointed non-resident professor of American history in Cornell university.