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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... wrote on January 24 , 1818 , describing Langstaff as “ a most eccentric character ... something like Lord Byron's ' Lara , ' for no- body knows where he came from , or who he is . " Halleck adds that Lang- staff was about his age and ...
... wrote " To Louis Gaylord Clark , Esquire , " editor of the Knickerbocker , to help celebrate Clark's marriage . The poem appeared on the final page of Knickerbocker Gallery ( 1855 ) , a collector's volume of over five - hundred pages ...
... wrote a poem hon- oring Halleck , and Whitman wrote " As the Greek's Signal Flame ” to honor Whittier . Charles F. Johnson dreamed , " If we could unite the virile qualities , the breadth , force and flashes of insight , of Whitman , to ...