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. |
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... poet , Fitz - Greene Halleck . President Hayes , who had taken office only two months earlier , un- knowingly ... poet will immediately recognize him.5 6 Taylor denounced the effeminate depiction of his friend and had com- mented ...
... poet.11 The Literary Gazette ( July 25 , 1829 ) called Bryant and Halleck the nation's best poets , and the two poets were ranked as " quite equal " as late as 1957.12 As a poet , Halleck was more confident than ever , for Europe had ...
... poet's cup of fame . Hurrah ! there lives a lady still , Willing to take his name.81 She may have been willing , but the poet slips away . As in 1821 , Halleck's only poem of 1832 was a February Valentine , " Lines to Her Who Can ...