Halleck

Halleck, FITZ-GREENE, an American poet, born at Guilford, Connecticut, 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, and died November 19, 1867. 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, Funny (2d ed., enlarged, 1821), a satire on the literature, fashions, and politics of the time, in the measure of Don Juan. He visited Europe in 1822, and in 1827 published anonymously an edition of his poems (3d ed., enlarged, 1845). In 1865 he published Young America, a poem of three hundred lines. His complete Poetical Writings have been edited by his biographer (1869). Halleck is a fair poet. His style is spirited, flowing, graceful, and harmonious. His poems display much geniality and tender feeling. Their humour is quaint and pungent, and if not rich, is always refined. See his Life and Letters, edited by James Grant Wilson (1869).