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Bristed was born in New York City, New York, the son of the Reverend John Bristed and Magdalena Astor (daughter of John Jacob Astor). He graduated from Yale College in 1839 with honors, and from Trinity College, Cambridge, England, in 1845, taking numerous prizes and being made a foundation scholar of the college. He returned to the United States in 1847, and married as his first wife Laura Whetten Brevoort (1823-1848, the daughter of Henry Brevoort and Sarah Whetten); and as his second wife Grace Ashburner Sedgwick (1833-1897, the daughter of Charles Sedgwick and Elizabeth Buckminster Dwight), by whom he had two sons.

He amused himself contributing articles, poetical translations, critical papers on the classics, and sketches of society to various journals, and in 1849 edited "Selections from Catullus," for school use. In 1850 he published "Letters to the Hon. Horace Mann," being a reply to some strictures upon the characters of Girard and Astor. In 1852 a collection of his sketches on New York Society entitled "The Upper Ten Thousand," appeared in the "Fraser Magazine." At the same time he published "Four Years in an English University," in which he described the manners, customs, and mode of life but little understood in this country.

Bristed exhibited in his writings a keen appreciation of men and books. His wide scholarship makes his essays valuable, and marks his criticisms with the best qualities of a trained university man. He also published many clever poetical translations from the classics. In his later years he resided in Washington, D.C. He was a frequent contributor to the "Galaxy," under the pen-name "Carl Benson," and published "The Interference Theory of Governments," a book denunciatory of tariff and prohibitory liquor laws, and "Pieces of a Broken-down Critic."

He was one of the trustees of the Astor Library from its origin. He died in Washington, D.C.