Fitz-Greene Halleck | Biography

Fitz-Greene Halleck (8 July 1790-19 December 1867), a Knickerbocker poet and man of letters, was born and died in Guilford, Connecticut. Halleck left Guilford at the age of twenty-one and entered into business in New York City. It was there that, in 1812, he met Joseph Rodman Drake, and they became instant friends. In 1819 Drake and Halleck began their famed collaboration as the "Croakers"; Drake was "Croaker," Halleck was "Croaker, Jr.," and together they were "Croaker and Company." They wrote satiric, light, and witty poems which were published in the Evening Post during 1819 and reprinted nationally, and both found great joy in what they deemed the literary life. Their anonymity was successfully maintained for a year, and when they revealed their identities to William Coleman, editor of the Post , he is supposed to have exclaimed, "My God, I had no idea that we had such talent in America." The popular satires were collected in Poems (1819).

As Drake's health declined, Halleck began to write on his own, and in December of 1819 he published Fanny, a narrative in the style of Byron's "Beppo," that commented with humor and satire on the times. Published anonymously, the poem was praised for its liveliness and ease, characteristics of literature held in high esteem by the Knickerbockers. Halleck's social life grew lively, too, and in the decade of the twenties he maintained close ties with Paulding, Verplanck, Dana, Bryant, and Cooper. The New York intellectuals and artists formed an informal club called the Bread and Cheese Lunch, of which Halleck was a member.

In 1822 Halleck journeyed to Europe; his poem "Alnwick Castle" was composed on his visit to the north of England. The death of the Greek patriot Marco Bozzaris in 1823 was the occasion for Halleck's poem entitled "Marco Bozzaris." It was published in the first number of the New York Review and Athenaeum Magazine, of which William Cullen Bryant was one of the publishers. The subject was a popular one in America, and the poem was reprinted in several other periodicals, both in America and England. It was received with praise by all contemporary critics but Edgar Allan Poe, who found it forceful but without lyricism.

In 1826 the financial affairs of Jacob Barker, with whom Halleck was associated, became entangled in litigation, and a series of trials followed. Barker believed that Richard Riker, Recorder of New York City, was responsible for a conspiracy against him, and in 1828 there appeared in the New York Post "The Recorder, A Poetical Epistle by Thomas Castaly," written by Halleck. The poem alternates between friendly mockery and bitter satire, but it is clear that Halleck feels indignation toward Riker. Bryant printed the poem in the Post, mentioning its "sportive irony." The poem also includes a tribute to Bryant, and the two poets were subsequently the subjects of frequent comparison by critics.

Halleck's reputation rose in the next decade, even as his poetic production dwindled. In 1827 his first collection, Alnwick Castle, with Other Poems, appeared and quickly sold out. This edition included two new poems, "Burns" and "Wyoming." The tribute to Robert Burns was highly praised. Poe found it to have "peculiar grace and terseness of expression." Thomas Campbell was the poet Halleck admired most; Halleck visited the valley of Wyoming that Campbell had made famous in Gertrude of Wyoming and wrote his own lines on it. The 1827 collection was very well received, the only demur being a hope for a more substantial amount of poetry to come from Halleck.

Halleck's contemporaries agreed that lyricism was his strong point. He most admired poets whose poetry he could easily commit to memory; the subtleties of Browning and Tennyson were distinctly not to his taste. His work reflects an inability to reconcile the real and the ideal, and he frequently undercuts a serious statement with frivolity. Halleck insisted throughout his life on his amateur status. Though he never gave himself entirely to poetry, Halleck was active in literary circles.

In 1832 he became John Jacob Astor's private secretary; he contributed to annuals, wrote a few poems for the newspapers, and in 1833 edited The Works of Lord Byron; in 1842 he met Dickens on the novelist's American trip; and Halleck was among those to whom Poe thought he could turn for financial aid. In 1848 Astor died, leaving Halleck an annuity and a trusteeship of the Astor Library. Halleck retired to Guilford, where he maintained a correspondence with the literary world, but published nothing until 1864, when a rather weak satirical poem, "Young America," was printed in the New York Ledger. Soon after his death, a monument was erected in Guilford. At the dedication, a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes was read and the monument was dedicated by Bayard Taylor. In 1872 a statue of the poet was dedicated in Central Park.