Home › H › Halleck (FITZ-GREENE an American poet)

Halleck (FITZ-GREENE an American poet)

FITZ-GREENE, an American poet; born in Guilford, Conn., July 8, 1790. By his mother he was descended from John Eliot, "the apostle of the Indians." He became a clerk in a bank in New York in 1811, and in 1832 the private secretary of John Jacob Astor; in 1849 he retired, on an annuity of $200 left him by Astor, to his native town, where he spent the remainder of his days. From his boyhood Halleck wrote verses, and in 1819 he contributed, with Joseph Rodman Drake, a series of humorous satirical papers in verse to the New York "Evening Post." In the same year he published his longest poem, "Fanny" (2d edition, enlarged, 1821), a satire on the literature, fashions, and politics of the time. He visited Europe in 1822, and in 1827 published anonymously an edition of his poems (3d edition, enlarged, 1845).

In 1865 he published "Young America," a poem of 300 lines. His His complete "Poetical Writings" was published in 1869. He died in Guilford, Conn., Nov. 19, 1867.