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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... sister , and " To My Sister Carry " was tribute to Caroline Drake.45 This incestuous infatuation appeared to be connected to a fetish for lesbianism . 99 Caroline Drake also figures in Drake's unfinished “ Leon , ” which was compared to ...
... sister , Caroline ( Cara ) M. Drake , and Sarah Eckford Drake's sister were both brides that year . Drake's sister - in - law married James E. DeKay , who chose Halleck as his groomsman . Halleck was struggling to digest Drake's death ...
... sister , Madeline Held , to move closer to him . Philip's sister Madeline reflects her brother's beauty while providing a masculine twin figure for Joseph to legitimately marry . She has the same hair and “ frank , firm face ” as Philip ...