The American Byron: Homosexuality and the Fall of Fitz-Greene HalleckHailed in the mid-nineteenth century as the most important American poet of the period, Fitz-Greene Halleck was a close friend of William C. Bryant, an associate of Charles Dickens and Washington Irving, and a celebrity sought out by John Jacob Astor and American presidents. Halleck, an attractive man of wit and charm, was dubbed "the American Byron" because he both employed similar poetic strategies and challenged the most sacred institutions of his day. A large general readership enjoyed his verse, though it was infused with homosexual themes. Indeed, Halleck's love for another man would be fictionalized in Bayard Taylor's novel Joseph and His Friend a century before the Stonewall riots. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 19
... included only the English and Scottish figures of William Shakespeare , Robert Burns , and Sir Walter Scott . Hal- leck remains the only American among the writers honored on what is now referred to as Literary Walk . Though New York ...
... included in a collection of Hal- leck's poetry published in 1827. " Marco Bozzaris " defended Greek lib- eration and became known as America's eminent lyric poem , frequently recited at academic graduations and political conventions ...
... included hetero- sexual behaviors . Therefore , Halleck would not have seen himself as a " sodomite , " that is , as a rapist . Nonsexual terms such as “ friend , ” “ bach- elor , " and " comrade " were generally not employed as codes ...
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Contents
Shepherds of Sodomy | 17 |
Love and War | 42 |
The Widow Halleck | 67 |
Conquer and Divide | 92 |
A Return to Ganymede | 121 |
Halleck and His Friend | 151 |
Notes | 177 |
196 | |
217 | |