John Charles Dent (1841-1888) was a Canadian journalist, author and historian. Dent received his primary education in Canadian schools, studied law in Brantford, Ontario, and became an attorney in 1865. He developed his journalistic skills working for The Daily Telegraph. He also contributed a series of articles to the periodical Once a Week. In 1880, soon after the death of George Brown, founder of the Globe, he severed his connection with that paper and began his first ambitious undertaking, The Canadian Portrait Gallery (1880), which ran to four large volumes. His second book was The Last Forty Years: Canada Since the Union of 1841. This work has been highly praised in all quarters. His third work was a History of the Rebellion in Upper Canada (1885-6). In addition, he wrote a great many sketches, essays and stories. A collection of his stories was published posthumously in The Gerrard Street Mystery and Other Weird Tales (1888). Dent was elected to fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada in 1887.