Charles Nordhoff was an American journalist, descriptive and miscellaneous writer.
He was born in Erwitte, Germany (Prussia) in 1830, and emigrated to the USA in 1845. He was educated in Cincinnati, and was for nine years at sea, in the navy and merchant service; from 1853 to 1857 in various newspaper offices; was then employed editorially by the Harpers (1861), and for the next ten years on the staff of the New York Evening Post.