Thanks to blogger David M. for this illumination:

In answer to Mr. Derbyshire’s bleg, it appears that JF Neal and John Neal
are indeed one and the same.
All Mr. Derbyshire needed to do was consult the website of the Waterboro
(Maine) Public Library (wouldn’t that have been your first research stop?)
to find out, that John Neal (Aug. 23, 1793 – Jun. 20, 1876) was an American
writer and author of many works including Brother John. He spent 1823-27 in
England where he wrote a series of columns for Blackwood’s Magazine, which
work was “considered the first effort to chronicle and explain American
literature and was reprinted as American Writers in 1937. “
Mr. Neal also taught boxing at Bowdoin College. But perhaps the most
endearing Neal story (to me anyway), is that he,
“at 79 years old, is noted for throwing a defiant cigar-smoking passenger
off a
street car.”

Wonder where that “F” came from?