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
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... close students of literary history in this country could iden- tify off - hand the name of Fitz - Greene Halleck . " 18 His radical fall from fame demonstrates the politics of decanonization , just as his decanoniza- tion negates his ...
... close the gap in their friendship , which had been postponed by war and marriage . Invitations to restore the friendship were poetic . Whether Drake was bisexual or not , his one poem , " To Sarah , " written on their first wed- ding ...
... close to Drake " to be able to write the biography , adding : “ His feeling for [ Drake ] was so intense that he may have regarded the task as being quite beyond his powers . " 47 Even before Drake's death became imminent , Halleck had ...