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John Abraham Heraud

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John Abraham Heraud (5 July 1799 - 20 April 1887) was an English poet, playwright, and journalist.

John Abraham Heraud Watkins

John Abraham Heraud (1799-1887). Photo by George Herbert Watkins (1828-1916), 1850's. Courtesy Wikimecia Commons.

Life[]

Overview[]

Born in London, of Huguenot descent, Heraud contributed to various periodicals, and published 2 poems, which attracted some attention, The Descent into Hell (1830), and The Judgment of the Flood (1834). He also produced a few plays, miscellaneous poems, books of travel, etc.[1]

Youth and education[]

Heraud was born in the parish of St Andrew's, Holborn, London, on 5 July 1799. His father, James Abraham Heraud, of Huguenot descent, was a law stationer (first in Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and then at 25 Bell Yard, Temple Bar), and died at Tottenham, Middlesex, on 6 May 1846, having married Jane, daughter of John and Elizabeth Hicks; she died 2 August 1850.[2]

John Abraham, the son, was privately educated, and originally destined for business, but in 1818 began writing for the magazines.[2]

Career[]

Heraud's knowledge of German, then a rare accomplishment, secured him a conspicuous position. He attached himself to the school of Schelling, and endeavored to popularize the speculations of that philosopher in England.[2]

In 1820 he published his local poem Tottenham, and in 1821 his Legends of St. Loy.[2]

On 15 May 1823 he married, at Old Lambeth Church, Ann Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Baddams, who died at Islington on 21 September 1867. By her he had 2 children, Claudius William Heraud of Woodford, and Edith Heraud, an actress.[2]

He had a large circle of acquaintances, including Coleridge, Southey, Wordsworth, and Lockhart. With the Carlyles he was very friendly, assisting them in their house-hunting, and it was partly on his recommendation that the house 5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, was taken in 1834. He wrote for the Quarterly and other reviews, and from 1830 to 1833 assisted in editing Fraser's Magazine.[2]

He edited The Sunbeam: A journal devoted to polite literature, in 1838 and 1839; the Monthly Magazine from 1839 to 1842; and subsequently the Christian's Monthly Magazine. In 1843 he became a contributor to the ‘Athenæum,’ and afterwards served as its dramatic critic until his retirement in 1868.[2]

Heraud was a keen critic of acting. His memory carried him back to John Kemble and Edmund Kean. He was himself the writer of several dramas. The tragedy of Videna was acted at the Marylebone Theatre with success in 1854, and Wife or No Wife and a version of M. Legouvé's Medea were afterwards produced with equal favour. From 1849 to 1879 he was also the dramatic critic of the Illustrated London News. Ultimately he was in receipt of a pension from that journal as well as from the Athenæum.[2]

On 21 July 1873, on the nomination of W.E. Gladstone, he was appointed a brother of the Charterhouse, Charterhouse Square, London, where he died on 20 April 1887.[2]

The Syncretics[]

Heraud was identified as a leading figure in the "Syncretics", a proto-aesthetic group mocked in Punch and prominent around 1840.[3] After a few years the excitement around their eclectic approach subsided. A biographer of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who initially took a great interest, has called Heraud in particular a "general failure".[4]

Other Syncretics were Francis Foster Barham, Richard Henry Horne, and John Westland Marston.[3] Barham and Heraud founded the Syncretic Society, or Syncretic Association.[5] It grew out of an earlier group round James Pierrepont Greaves, the "Aesthetic Society" or "Aesthetic Institution", based in Burton Street on the north side of Bloomsbury, with a core of Greaves and a few neighbours. Heraud and Barham took over the Monthly Magazine, and it functioned as the organ of the group in the period 1839 to 1841.[6][7] Camilla Toulmin gained the impression in 1841, visiting Horne, that there was a group of younger and ambitious men in the Syncretics, besides the better-known names.[8] For example, the Syncretics took up the Festus of Philip James Bailey.[9]

Transatlantic ties[]

The group also found kinship with, and encouragement from, the New England transcendentalists.[9] Bronson Alcott corresponded with Greaves.[10] He also sent books to Greaves and Heraud; Greaves sent back books including Heraud's Lecture on Poetic Genius.[11] Approval of the Monthly Magazine was strong from Alcott, Convers Francis and George Ripley. Heraud published one piece from New England in 1839, an oration by Robert Bartlett. It proved a false start, though. Later in the year the transcendentalists founded their own periodical, The Dial, along the same lines.[12]

Writing in The Dial in 1842, Emerson in his article English Reformers praised Heraud as an interpreter of Jakob Boehme and Emanuel Swedenborg; and referenced his papers Foreign Aids to Self Intelligence, which had been announced as a three-volume work.[13] Heraud took Emerson to be a disciple of Carlyle, and was contradicted in The Present.[14] A few years later he was explaining that Swedenborg was to be taken only as an example and inspiration, since the transcendentalist approach was at odds with an established church.[15] It was through the pages of the Monthly Magazine that two notable Swedenborgians, James John Garth Wilkinson and Henry James Sr., came to know each other.[16]

Carlyle in fact disapproved of the group around Heraud and Alcott House, Greaves's project. These included John Goodwyn Barmby, Newton Crosland, Horne, Henry Mansel, and James Elishama Smith.[4]

Writing[]

Poetry[]

Heraud was an author of varied erudition, and made 2 attempts at epic grandeur in his poems The Descent into Hell, 1830, and The Judgment of the Flood, 1834. He was in poetry what John Martin was in art, a worshipper of the vast, the remote, and the terrible. His Descent and Judgment are psychological curiosities, evincing much misplaced power.[2]

Harper's Cyclopædia of British and American poetry noted that as a poet, Heraud had been snubbed by the critics, "and not always unjustly". It also repeated the story attributed to Douglas Jerrold, asked by Heraud whether he had seen "his Descent into Hell", and replying that he'd like to.[17] George Saintsbury put Heraud on a level with Edwin Atherstone, and above Robert Pollok.[18]

Herbert Tucker regards the Judgement of the Flood as "deranged", but has more time for the Descent into Hell. He places it with other, earlier attempts to dramatise Christian typology, such as those of William Gilbank and Elizabeth Smith of Birmingham. He notes Heraud's familiarity with Coleridge's apologetics, and his reference to Martin in the annotations.[19]

Heraud later wrote a political epic, which remained unpublished. This work was under the influence of William James Linton.[20]

Miscellaneous[]

Heraud was the author of: 1. ‘The Legend of St. Loy, with other Poems,’ 1820. 2. ‘Tottenham,’ a poem, 1820. 3. ‘The Descent into Hell,’ a poem, 1830; second edition, to which are added ‘Uriel,’ a fragment, and three odes. 4. ‘A Philosophical Estimate of the Controversy respecting the Divine Humanity,’ 1831. 5. ‘An Oration on the Death of S.T. Coleridge,’ 1834. 6. ‘The Judgment of the Flood,’ a poem, 1834; new ed. 1857. 7. ‘Substance of a Lecture on Poetic Genius as a Moral Power,’ 1837. 8. ‘Voyages up the Mediterranean of William Robinson, with Memoirs,’ 1837, 12mo. 9. ‘Expediency and Means of Elevating the Profession of the Educator,’ a prize essay, printed in the ‘Educator,’ 1839, pp. 133–260. 10. ‘The Life and Times of G. Savonarola,’ 1843, 12mo. 11. ‘Salvator, the Poor Man of Naples,’ a dramatic poem, privately printed, 1845, 12mo. 12. ‘Videna, or the Mother's Tragedy. A Legend of Early Britain,’ 1854. 13. ‘The British Empire,’ written in conjunction with Sir A. Alison and others, 1856. 14. ‘Henry Butler's Theatrical Directory and Dramatic Almanack,’ ed. by J. A. Heraud, 1860, &c., 12mo. 15. ‘Shakespeare, his Inner Life as intimated in his Works,’ 1865. 16. ‘The Wreck of the London,’ a lyrical ballad, 1866. 17. ‘The In-Gathering, Cimon and Pero, a Chain of Sonnets, Sebastopol,’ &c., 1870, 18mo. 18. ‘The War of Ideas,’ a poem, &c., 1871. 19. ‘Uxmal: an Antique Love Story. Macée de Léodepart: an Historical Romance,’ 1877, 16mo. 20. ‘The Sibyl among the Tombs,’ 1886.[2]

Publications[]

Poetry[]

  • The Legend of St. Loy, with other poems. London: Baldwin, 1820
    • revised & expanded, London: Baldwin, Cradock, & Joy, 1825.
  • Tottenham: A poem. London: privately published, 1820.
  • The Descent into Hell: A poem. London: John Murray, 1830
    • revised, London: James Fraser, 1835.
  • The Judgment of the Flood. London: James Fraser, 1834
    • revised, London: David Bogue, 1857.
  • The Wreck of the London: A lyrical ballad. London: J.W. Anson / W. Walker / C.W. Stevens, 1866.
  • The In-Gathering / Cimon and Pero / A Chain of Sonnets / Sebastopol. London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1870.
  • The War of Ideas: A poem. London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1871.

Play[]

  • The Roman Brother: A tragedy. London, Sherwood, Gilbert & Piper, 1840.
  • Salvator: The poor man of Naples. London: Cahn, 1845,

Medea the enchantress: a tragic play in three acts. 1878.

Short fiction[]

  • Uxmal: An antique love story / Macée de Léodepart: An historical romance. London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1877.

Novel[]

  • Videna, or the Mother's Tragedy. A Legend of Early Britain. London: C. Mitchell, 1854.

Non-fiction[]

  • A Philosophical Estimate of the Controversy Respecting the Divine Humanity. London: James Fraser, 1831.
  • An Oration on the Death of S.T. Coleridge. London: James Fraser, 1834.
  • Substance of a Lecture on Poetic Genius as a Moral Power. London: James Fraser, 1837.
  • The "Tracts for the times": Impartially and dispassionately considered. London: J.W. Southgate, 1839.
  • Prize Essays on the Expediency and Means of Elevating the Profession of the Educator in Society (contributor). London: Taylor & Walkin, 1839.
  • The Present Position of the Dramatic Poet in England. London: C. Mitchell, 1841.
  • The Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola. London: Whittaker, 1843.
  • Shakespear: His inner life as intimated in his works. London: J. Maxwell, 1865.

Edited[]

  • William Robinson, Voyages up the Mediterranean and in the Indian Seas; with Memoirs. London: James Fraser, 1837.
  • Henry Butler's Theatrical Directory and Dramatic Almanack, editor, 1860.


Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[21]

See also[]

References[]

  •  Boase, George Clement (1891) "Heraud, John Abraham" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 26 London: Smith, Elder, p. 165  . Wikisource, Web, July 8, 2016.
  • Alan D. McKillop, A Victorian Faust, PMLA Vol. 40, No. 3 (Sep. 1925), pp. 743–768. Published by: Modern Language Association. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/457567
  • Janice Nadelhaft, Punch and the Syncretics: An Early Victorian Prologue to the Aesthetic Movement, Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900 Vol. 15, No. 4, Nineteenth Century (Autumn, 1975), pp. 627–640. Published by: Rice University. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/450016
  • Fred C. Thomson, A Crisis in Early Victorian Drama: John Westland Marston and the Syncretics, Victorian Studies Vol. 9, No. 4 (Jun. 1966), pp. 375–398. Published by: Indiana University Press. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3825817
  • Frederick Wagner, Eighty-Six Letters (1814–1882) of A. Bronson Alcott (Part One), Studies in the American Renaissance (1979), pp. 239–308. Published by: Joel Myerson. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30227466

Notes[]

  1. ↑ John William Cousin, "Heraud, John Abraham," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910, 187. Web, Jan. 24, 2018.
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Boase, 165.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Nadelhaft, 629.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Gay Wilson Allen (1981). Waldo Emerson: A biography. Viking Press. p. 408. ISBN 0670748668. 
  5. ↑ Nadelhaft, p. 632.
  6. ↑ Thomson, p. 378.
  7. ↑ J. E. M. Latham (1999). Search for a New Eden: James Pierrepont Greaves (1777–1842): The Sacred Socialist and His Followers. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. pp. 80. ISBN 978-0-8386-3809-5. https://books.google.com/books?id=i6BzfM3zRSMC&pg=PA80. Retrieved 3 April 2013. 
  8. ↑ Camilla Dufour Crosland, Landmarks of a Literary Life 1820–1892 (1893), p. 279; archive.org.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 McKillop, p. 762 note 80.
  10. ↑ Tiffany K. Wayne (1 January 2009). Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. Infobase Publishing. p. 131. ISBN 978-1-4381-0916-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=hckauAdkix0C&pg=PA131. Retrieved 1 April 2013. 
  11. ↑ Wagner p. 304 note 7 and p. 306 note 2.
  12. ↑ Catherine L. Albanese (1977). Corresponding Motion: Transcendental religion and the new America. Temple University Press. pp. 98–9. ISBN 0877220980. 
  13. ↑ Ralph Waldo Emerson; Margaret Fuller; George Ripley (1843). The Dial: A Magazine for Literature, Philosophy, and Religion. Weeks, Jordan. p. 231. https://books.google.com/books?id=P3sAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA231. Retrieved 1 April 2013. 
  14. ↑ Clarence L. Gohdes (1 July 2003). Periodicals of American Transcendentalism 1931. Kessinger Publishing. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-7661-7183-1. https://books.google.com/books?id=mJI67QRqmcoC&pg=PA92. Retrieved 2 April 2013. 
  15. ↑ Las Vegas David Holland Assistant Professor of History University of Nevada (5 January 2011). Sacred Borders : Continuing Revelation and Canonical Restraint in Early America: Continuing Revelation and Canonical Restraint in Early America. Oxford University Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-19-984252-0. https://books.google.com/books?id=65JS44npjd0C&pg=PA172. Retrieved 2 April 2013. 
  16. ↑ Howard M Feinstein (1999). Becoming William James.... Cornell University Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-8014-8642-5. https://books.google.com/books?id=7rZW21At804C&pg=PA71. Retrieved 3 April 2013. 
  17. ↑ Epes Sargent, Harper's Cyclopædia of British and American Poetry (1909) p. 519; archive.org.
  18. ↑ Herbert F. Tucker (17 April 2008). Epic: Britain's Heroic Muse 1790–1910: Britain's Heroic Muse 1790–1910. Oxford University Press. p. 258 note 30. ISBN 978-0-19-152840-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=CXeybhiRmagC&pg=PA258. Retrieved 1 April 2013. 
  19. ↑ Herbert F. Tucker (17 April 2008). Epic: Britain's Heroic Muse 1790–1910: Britain's Heroic Muse 1790–1910. Oxford University Press. pp. 281–2. ISBN 978-0-19-152840-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=CXeybhiRmagC&pg=PA281. Retrieved 1 April 2013. 
  20. ↑ Francis Barrimore Smith (1973). Radical Artisan: William James Linton 1812–1897. Manchester University Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-87471-180-6. https://books.google.com/books?id=oRgNAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA93. Retrieved 1 April 2013. 
  21. ↑ Search results = au:John Abraham Heraud, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, July 8m 2016.

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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Heraud,_John_Abraham_(DNB00) Heraud, John Abraham}

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