David Parish is remembered today by readers of historical fiction as a colorful character in Hervey Allen's picaresque novel, Anthony Adverse, and students of American history know him as an underwriter of one of the loans that enabled the United States to wage the War of 1812. His career was far more important than his present-day reputation would suggest; for he was an international financial adventurer of the type that flourished during the Napoleonic era, when the spirit of nationalism had only begun to shackle men's thoughts and actions.