Frontispiece of Park Benjamin. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Park Benjamin, Sr. (August 14, 1809 - September 12, 1864) was an American poet, journalist, and editor, who founded several newspapers.
Life[]
He was born in Demerara, British Guiana, August 14, 1809, but was early sent to New England. He graduated from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. He practiced law in Boston, but abandoned it for editorial work there and later in New York.
On July 8, 1839, he joined with Rufus Wilmot Griswold to produce The Evening Tattler, a journal which promised "the sublimest songs of the great poets – the eloquence of the most renowned orators – the heart-entrancing legends of love and chivalry – the laughter-loving jests of all lands". In addition to fiction and poetry, it also published foreign news, local gossip, jokes, and New York police reports.[1]
In 1840 Benjamin helped to found The New World and after other brief editorial ventures became a lecturer, public reader, and periodical writer. He was sued for libel by James Fenimore Cooper, and was on personal terms with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe.
By the time his 1st son, Park Benjamin, Jr., was born, the elder Benjamin had settled down to quiet retirement in Long Island. Hen died, after a brief illness, on September 12, 1864.[2] He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.[3]
His son, Park Benjamin, Jr., was also a writer.
Writing[]
Edgar Allan Poe had mixed feelings about Benjamin, calling his writing "lucid, terse, and pungent" and his character "witty, often cuttingly sarcastic, but seldom humorous".[4] Walt Whitman, for a time one of Benjamin's employees and protégés, hated his poetry outright.[5]
Recognition[]
In the 20th century, Park Benjamin, Sr. was virtually forgotten. He is now known only through his shorter poems, of which "The Old Sexton" is often anthologized.
Publications[]
- Infatuation: A poem (delivered to the Mercantile Library Association of Boston, October 9, 1844). Boston: Association Boston, W.D. Ticknor, 1844) [online text] [online text]
- A Poem on the Meditation of Nature (spoken September 26th, 1832, before the Association of the Alumni of Washington College). Hartford, CT: F.J. Huntington, 1832.
- Poetry: a satire (pronounced before the Mercantile Library Association at its 22nd anniversary). New York: J. Winchester, 1842.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy West Virginia University.[6]
See also[]
References[]
- This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.. Original article is at:
Notes[]
- ↑ Bayless, Joy. Rufus Wilmot Griswold: Poe's Literary Executor. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1943. p. 29
- ↑ Duyckinck, Evert Augustus; George Long Duyckinck (1866). Cyclopaedia of American Literature: Embracing Personal and Critical Notices. New York: Charles Scrbner and Company. p. 53.
- ↑ Park Benjamin, Sr. Find a Grave. Web, July 4, 2013.
- ↑ Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. New York: Checkmark Books, 2001: 25. ISBN 0-8160-4161-X.
- ↑ Poets.org
- ↑ Park Benjamin, Sr., Strangers to Us All: Lawyers and Poetry, College of Law, West Virginia University. Web, July 4, 2013.
External links[]
- Poems
- "New York Harbor on a Calm Day" at Poetry Atlas.
- Park Benjamin at PoemHunter (6 poems).
- About
- Park Benjamin, Sr. at Strangers to Us All: Lawyers and Poetry.
- Park Benjamin, Sr. at Find a Grave
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