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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... same - sex relations of the nine- teenth century were increasingly held between men of common age , class , and education . Halleck himself moved from adolescent associations with foreign men beneath his social status to his adult ...
... same - sex marriage to chieftains . Access to these three models of homosexuality were limited , yet they were manifest throughout the nineteenth century . Allusions to Greek pederasty abounded in literature of the period , and the ...
... sexual conceptions in Guilford were intrinsically negative . Some familiarity with the puritanical paradigm is necessary for under- standing Halleck's point of view and varied attempts to reestablish mu- tual and nurturing same - sex ...