DOCSLIB.ORG

In Memoriam. Charles Godfrey Leland. Born at Philadelphia, August 15, 1834

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
In Memoriam. Charles Godfrey Leland. Born at Philadelphia, August 15, 1834 Folklore ISSN: 0015-587X (Print) 1469-8315 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rfol20 In Memoriam. Charles Godfrey Leland. Born at Philadelphia, August 15, 1834. Died at Florence, March 20, 1903. F. York Powell To cite this article: F. York Powell (1903) In Memoriam. Charles Godfrey Leland. Born at Philadelphia, August 15, 1834. Died at Florence, March 20, 1903., Folklore, 14:2, 162-164, DOI: 10.1080/0015587X.1903.9719349 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1903.9719349 Published online: 06 Feb 2012. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 2 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rfol20 Download by: [University of California, San Diego] Date: 29 June 2016, At: 12:53 In Memo via m. CHARLES GODFREY LELAND. BORN AT PHILADELPHIA, AUGUST 15, 1834. DIED AT FLORENCE, MARCH SO, 1903. AMERICAN born, but living and dying in Europe, a graduate of Princeton, a student of Heidelberg, of Munich, and of Paris, a barrister, an educationalist, a traveller, a volunteer soldier both in the States and in Europe, a skilled handicraftsman, a fair designer, and an excellent companion, Charles Godfrey Leland would have been a man of mark even had he not been also one of the first humorous poets of his time and country, and a devoted explorer in the enchanted fields of linguistic and folklore. His extraordinary aptness for strange tongues, and his easy and complete comprehension of the structure and thought-mode of these, are proved by his Pidgeon-English Sing-Song, his Gypsy verse, and the inimitable and delightful Breitmann ballads, as well as by his discovery of Shelta and his translation of Algonquin legends and Romagnese spell-songs. He had in his folklore studies his own way of going to work. He possessed the necessary gift of being able to collect, for his persuasive tongue, fine presence, and quiet revelation of immense and well-remembered stores of facts and legends, opened to him paths firmly closed to others. He could and did make careful and exact notes, but when he put his results before the public he liked to give them the seal of his own personality and to allow his fancy to play about the stories and poems he was publishing, so that those who were not able quickly to distinguish what was folklore and what was Leland were shocked, and grumbled (much to his astonishment and even disgust) and belittled his real achievements. He thought clearly, and many of his " guesses " have been or are being con­ firmed. He was a strong advocate for progress of the right kind both in learning and in life, and would fain have instituted many useful reforms. He was full of life and energy and observation, Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 12:53 29 June 2016 a big handsome man of engaging manners, to whom the young and the simple were magnetically drawn. His treasury of Obituary. 163 anecdote was rich and varied, and his memory exact and trust worthy. He lived a full life. He wrote much and easily. His translations of Heine are among the most felicitous that have appeared in any tongue, and his version of Scheffel excellent. He has told part of his own life-story in his pleasant " Memoirs." The wide range of his acquaintance (for he knew the chief English men of letters, politics, and science as well as he knew the chief English gypsies) gave him a wonderful experience of human life and a quiet and convincing philosophy. People liked to talk to him as well as to hear his talk, and he was a good listener as well as a good talker. His best verse was as good as Lowell's, his best prose a great deal better, both in substance and expression. To have created Breitmann and Ping-Wing is to have impressed his contemporaries as few of his countrymen have done. He possessed the linguistic gifts of Palmer, but with finer literary instinct. He had something of Burton in his delight in natural human beings other than to the ordinary frock-coated, tall- hatted, and tight-waisted, high-heeled European types, and he had something of Schuchardt's warm instinct for the " tongues of transition" and the "life of transition" between indigenous and imported civilisation. The broken Greek of the Gospels would have interested him more than the choice Attic of Sophokles, a true folklorist in this, that the untouched byways were his favourite paths. He was too comprehensive in mind to become, like Lowell, a distinguished satirist; he saw too much of both sides to admit that there was no good at all in the adversary. He fought in the Civil War, and he spoke the truth fearlessly in politics, but these were duties, and his pleasure lay in the obser­ vation of humanity. Easy of access (but never permitting himself to be bored) and delighting in good fellowship, few of the really distinguished figures of his day but were pleased to number Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 12:53 29 June 2016 Leland among the friends they would gladly welcome. ilis views on education I have not to do with here, but I may spend a line in recording my belief in the soundness of their tendency, and to notice that the opinion of experts both here and on the Continent is in their favour. Leland is gone, Breitmann is left to us, an historic figure, the successor of Plautus, swaggering mercenary, of Shakespere's pedantic Fluellen, of Scott's shrewd Dalgetty, with an individuality M 2 164 Obituary. and humour as distinct as theirs; a curious product of his age. To create a living personality is the accepted test of the master of fiction, he has amply satisfied it. But Leland was not only a maker, he was a man of science, an observer, a recorder, and as time goes on it is probable that much of his work, personal as it is, will be none the less valued. He is always stimulating, he leaves definitely on his reader's mind the impression facts have made on his, he is not neglectful of small things. The followers of folklore are proud to have numbered him among their little band of pilgrims bound, like Piers Plowman, to seek incessantly and without pretence the far-off shrine of Truth. F. YORK POWELL. GASTON PARIS. AUGUST QTH, 1839—MARCH 5TH, 1903. WHEN in early March the death of M. Gaston Paris was telegraphed from Cannes, such a thrill of sorrow and regret went through the world of learning as, it is safe to say, could hardly have been caused by the loss of any other scholar. Sorrow for the beloved and revered master, the friend, in the truest sense of the word, of every one of his pupils—nay, of every student, however modest, if only he worked with diligence and love of truth in any one of the many fields of study in which Gaston Paris was easily master; regret for all that has died with him—the immense wealth of knowledge, the devotion to his studies as of a saint to his Deity, the power of bringing out what was best in other workers, the capacity for so organising and directing research, that without forfeiting one jot of its strictly scientific character, it might enter into and fertilise general culture. Downloaded by [University of California, San Diego] at 12:53 29 June 2016 M. Gaston Paris was one of the earliest members of the Folk­ lore Society (his name appears in our first list); and throughout the whole of his career as a scholar, from his earliest published (and not yet superseded) history of the Charlemagne Cycle (1865) down to his latest contributions to Romania and the Journal des Savants, he was an indefatigable worker in one of the most im­ portant and fascinating branches of our study—the romantic and legendary literature of the Middle Ages. It was his life work to .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Music and the American Civil War
    “LIBERTY’S GREAT AUXILIARY”: MUSIC AND THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR by CHRISTIAN MCWHIRTER A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2009 Copyright Christian McWhirter 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT Music was almost omnipresent during the American Civil War. Soldiers, civilians, and slaves listened to and performed popular songs almost constantly. The heightened political and emotional climate of the war created a need for Americans to express themselves in a variety of ways, and music was one of the best. It did not require a high level of literacy and it could be performed in groups to ensure that the ideas embedded in each song immediately reached a large audience. Previous studies of Civil War music have focused on the music itself. Historians and musicologists have examined the types of songs published during the war and considered how they reflected the popular mood of northerners and southerners. This study utilizes the letters, diaries, memoirs, and newspapers of the 1860s to delve deeper and determine what roles music played in Civil War America. This study begins by examining the explosion of professional and amateur music that accompanied the onset of the Civil War. Of the songs produced by this explosion, the most popular and resonant were those that addressed the political causes of the war and were adopted as the rallying cries of northerners and southerners. All classes of Americans used songs in a variety of ways, and this study specifically examines the role of music on the home-front, in the armies, and among African Americans.
    [Show full text]
  • Constructing the Witch in Contemporary American Popular Culture
    "SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES": CONSTRUCTING THE WITCH IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE Catherine Armetta Shufelt A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 2007 Committee: Dr. Angela Nelson, Advisor Dr. Andrew M. Schocket Graduate Faculty Representative Dr. Donald McQuarie Dr. Esther Clinton © 2007 Catherine A. Shufelt All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Dr. Angela Nelson, Advisor What is a Witch? Traditional mainstream media images of Witches tell us they are evil “devil worshipping baby killers,” green-skinned hags who fly on brooms, or flaky tree huggers who dance naked in the woods. A variety of mainstream media has worked to support these notions as well as develop new ones. Contemporary American popular culture shows us images of Witches on television shows and in films vanquishing demons, traveling back and forth in time and from one reality to another, speaking with dead relatives, and attending private schools, among other things. None of these mainstream images acknowledge the very real beliefs and traditions of modern Witches and Pagans, or speak to the depth and variety of social, cultural, political, and environmental work being undertaken by Pagan and Wiccan groups and individuals around the world. Utilizing social construction theory, this study examines the “historical process” of the construction of stereotypes surrounding Witches in mainstream American society as well as how groups and individuals who call themselves Pagan and/or Wiccan have utilized the only media technology available to them, the internet, to resist and re- construct these images in order to present more positive images of themselves as well as build community between and among Pagans and nonPagans.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mystic Will 2
    The Mystic Will 2 THE MYSTIC WILL A Method of Developing and Strengthening the Faculties of the Mind, through the Awakened Will, by a Simple, Scientific Process Possible to Any Person of Ordinary Intelligence by CHARLES G. LELAND In Memorium Charles Godfrey Leland AMERICAN AUTHOR WHO DIED MARCH 20, 1903 AT FLORENCE, ITALY AGED 79 "The good that men do lives after them." PUBLISHER'S NOTICE. This wonderful treatise was first published in England several years ago, under the title of "Have You a Strong Will?" and has run through several editions there. In its original form, it was printed in quite large type, double−leaded, and upon paper which "bulked out" the book to quite a thick volume. Some copies have been sold in America, but the price which dealers were compelled to charge for it, in its original shape, prevented the wide circulation that it merited, and which its author undoubtedly desired for it, for it seems to have been a labor of love with him, the interest of the race in his wonderful theories evidently being placed above financial returns by Mr. Leland. Believing that the author's ideas and wishes would be well carried out by the publication of an American edition printed in the usual size type (without the expedient of "double−leading" unusually large type in order to make a large volume), which allows of the book being sold at a price within the reach of all, the publisher has issued this edition along the lines indicated. The present edition is identical with the original English edition with the following exceptions: (1) There has been omitted from this edition a long, tiresome chapter contained in the original edition, entitled "On the Power of the Mind to master disordered Feelings by sheer Determination.
    [Show full text]
  • Religion and the Return of Magic: Wicca As Esoteric Spirituality
    RELIGION AND THE RETURN OF MAGIC: WICCA AS ESOTERIC SPIRITUALITY A thesis submitted for the degree of PhD March 2000 Joanne Elizabeth Pearson, B.A. (Hons.) ProQuest Number: 11003543 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 11003543 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 AUTHOR’S DECLARATION The thesis presented is entirely my own work, and has not been previously presented for the award of a higher degree elsewhere. The views expressed here are those of the author and not of Lancaster University. Joanne Elizabeth Pearson. RELIGION AND THE RETURN OF MAGIC: WICCA AS ESOTERIC SPIRITUALITY CONTENTS DIAGRAMS AND ILLUSTRATIONS viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix ABSTRACT xi INTRODUCTION: RELIGION AND THE RETURN OF MAGIC 1 CATEGORISING WICCA 1 The Sociology of the Occult 3 The New Age Movement 5 New Religious Movements and ‘Revived’ Religion 6 Nature Religion 8 MAGIC AND RELIGION 9 A Brief Outline of the Debate 9 Religion and the Decline o f Magic? 12 ESOTERICISM 16 Academic Understandings of
    [Show full text]
  • The Works of Charles Godfrey Leland. 79 Etruscan Brown Cloth
    The Works of Charles Godfrey Leland. 79 A BIBLIOGKAPHY OF THE WOKKS OF CHAELBS GODFKEY LELAND. BY JOSEPH JACKSON. (Continued from Vol. L, page 379.) SIXTH PEEIOD 1884-1903. (Continued.) 1894. ELEMENTARY I METAL WORK | A PRACTICAL MANUAL FOR AMATEURS | AND FOR USE IN SCHOOLS | BY | CHARLES GODFREY LELAND, LATE DIRECTOR OF INDUSTRIAL ART WORK IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF PHILADELPHIA, AUTHOR | OF "PRACTICAL EDUCATION," "THE MINOR ARTS," "A MAN- UAL OF DESIGN," | "WOOD CARVING," "LEATHER WORK," &C, &C, &C. | LONDON: WHITTAKER AND CO. | NEW YORK AGENTS: MACMILLAN AND CO. Etruscan brown cloth, with front cover ornamented with a decorative design printed in black and bronze. Diagonally from the left hand lower corner to the right upper corner, the words: Metal Work. Around the four sides of the design, the words: Bent Iron, Eepousse, Cut Work, C. G. Leland. On the back cover, full design in black and bronze. In circle in centre, picture of Sanct. Eloy (the Blacksmith) at his forge. Legend in black letters on four sides of the cover de- sign: It may be as many sing 'Gold is over all men king' Yet if truth bee told Tis with Iron men win gold. An Edition with imprint of Macmillan and Co., New York, and Whittaker and Co. beneath. Both are the same, and were printed in England. Collation: Foolscap quarto, xvi and 111 pages, Half title; verso, announcement of Works on Practical Edu- cation by Leland; frontispiece, in half tone, of a piece 80 The Works of Charles Godfrey Leland. of repousse and sheet metal work from a bronze by Ghiberti; recto blank; Title, as above; verso blank; Preface pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Random Recollections of "Hans Breitmann." 141 When Charles
    Random Recollections of "Hans Breitmann." 141 KANDOM EECOLLECTIONS OF "HANS BKEITMANN.» BY EDWARD ROBINS, M.A. When Charles Godfrey Leland returned to Philadel- phia from England in the early 80 's, he seemed to come into my life like a fresh breeze—perhaps I might say a hurricane—into a hitherto quiet atmosphere. For I, hardly more than a boy, had been brought up in the conventional way in which most Philadelphia boys were brought up then,—but not now. I knew that my uncle was a distinguished author of vast versatility, but my ideas of literary men were old-fashioned, and I ex- pected to find in Leland a scholarly recluse, with a mild manner, a bespectacled face and, perhaps, a rooted aversion to society. But what I beheld was something so different as to be startling. A man with the figure of an athlete, full of life and animation, strikingly hand- some, with a gayety almost boyish and a temperament effervescing as champagne—such was "Hans Briet- mann'' as I first encountered him on his arrival in Phila- delphia, at the old Hotel Stratford, Broad and Walnut Streets. The fact was, that I had expected a mummy and found, instead, a virile human being. I took to him at once, as did also my sister, Elizabeth, as was but natural, seeing how affectionate he was and how glad he and my aunt seemed to see us after all the years dur- ing which the Lelands had lived in London, keeping open house for its literary and artistic celebrities.
    [Show full text]
  • Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
    THE PENNSYLVANIA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY VOLUME CXXXVII January 2013 NO. 1 EDITORIAL Tamara Gaskell 7 INTRODUCTION Erica Armstrong Dunbar and Randall M. Miller 9 THE CONTESTED HISTORY OF AMERICAN FREEDOM Eric Foner 13 THE AGE OF EMANCIPATING PROCLAMATIONS:EARLY CIVIL WAR ABOLITIONISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS Richard S. Newman 33 “GOD IS SETTLEING THE ACCOUNT”: AFRICAN AMERICAN REACTION TO LINCOLN’S EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION Daniel R. Biddle and Murray Dubin 57 “YOU FEEL SO OUT OF PLACE”: GERMANTOWN’S J. GORDON BAUGH AND THE 1913 COMMEMORATION OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION David W. Young 79 REVIEW ESSAY “A MEASURE ALIKE MILITARY & PHILANTHROPIC”: HISTORIANS AND THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION Douglas R. Egerton 95 BOOK REVIEWS 115 BOOK REVIEWS NEWMAN and MUELLER, eds., Antislavery and Abolition in Philadelphia: Emancipation and the Long Struggle for Racial Justice in the City of Brotherly Love, by Katrina Anderson 115 GRIVNO, Gleanings of Freedom: Free and Slave Labor along the Mason-Dixon Line, 1790–1860, by Howard Bodenhorn 116 DAVIS, “We Will Be Satisfied With Nothing Less”: The African American Struggle for Equal Rights in the North during Reconstruction, by W. Fitzhugh Brundage 118 COVER ILLUSTRATION: Lithograph of illustration by Thomas Nast commemorat- ing the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863. This image appeared as an illustration in the January 24, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly as a celebration of President Abraham Lincoln’s decree emancipating slaves during the Civil War. At the top of the illustration, the female figure Columbia, an early symbol of the United States, cheers emancipation and a portrait of President Lincoln is inset below.
    [Show full text]
  • Pennell Family Papers Ms
    Pennell family papers Ms. Coll. 50 Finding aid prepared by Maggie Kruesi. Last updated on June 29, 2020. University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts 1999 Pennell family papers Table of Contents Summary Information....................................................................................................................................3 Biography/History..........................................................................................................................................4 Scope and Contents....................................................................................................................................... 7 Administrative Information......................................................................................................................... 10 Controlled Access Headings........................................................................................................................10 Other Finding Aids......................................................................................................................................11 Bibliography.................................................................................................................................................11 Collection Inventory.................................................................................................................................... 13 Joseph and Elizabeth Robins Pennell Correspondence.........................................................................13
    [Show full text]
  • Elizabeth Robins Pennell (1855–1936): Pioneer Bicycle Tourist in Italy, Travel Writer, and Cycling Advocate for Women Paola Malpezzi Price Colorado State University
    LINGUA ROMANA VOL 11, ISSUE 2 ARTICLE Elizabeth Robins Pennell (1855–1936): Pioneer Bicycle Tourist in Italy, Travel Writer, and Cycling Advocate for Women Paola Malpezzi Price Colorado State University SUMMARY In 1896 Susan B. Anthony wrote that bicycling had done more than anything else for women’s emancipation. Elizabeth Robins Pennell exemplifies this assertion in both her personal life and professional accomplishments. Born and raised in Victorian Philadelphia, Robins Pennell “discovered” the world through her husband and collaborator, Joseph Pennell, an avid cyclist and brilliant illustrator, with whom she lived in London for over thirty years. Touring Italy by bicycle, Robins Pennell is probably the first woman who pedaled from Florence to Rome in 1884. She recounted this trip and several others taken with her husband on a tricycle and, eventually, on “safety bicycles” in France, England and Eastern Europe with vivid and detailed descriptions. She also became known as a keen art critic, a collector and writer of cookbooks, and a biographer of family members and friends. Her extensive autobiography left us with many details of her life and work. One of the accomplishments that made her most proud was to have been the first woman to cross over nine Alpine passes on a bicycle, with six being climbed in one week! KEYWORDS: Elizabeth Robins Pennel – women’s cycling – pioneer cyclist – cycling in Italy – touring cyclist – travelogue writer – bicycle advocate – women’s sports – nineteenth-century women Let me tell you what I think about bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.
    [Show full text]
  • The Charles G. Leland Collection of Romani Books and Manuscripts
    The Charles G. Leland Collection of Romani Books and Manuscripts Adrian S. Edwards Introduction Charles G. Leland (1824-1903) was a man of many interests. To the literary world, he is perhaps best known as the creator of the Hans Breitmann Ballads, comic verses in the German-English dialect of the north-eastern United States that were long popular on both sides of the Atlantic. In the field of American journalism, he is at best a minor figure associated with a broad range of newspapers and magazines, including a brief period as editor of Vanity Fair. Ethnographers know him for his work on subjects as diverse as Passamaquoddy folktales, Tuscan legends and witchcraft. Linguists know him for his pioneering work on the languages of the Roma or Gypsy people.1 It is Leland’s interest in this final category that forms the focus of this article. For the period from 1869 until his death, he repeatedly returned to the subject and earned the honorary title of ‘The Rye’, a Romani term for a Gypsy king. Leland spent much of his life in Britain, with extensive periods working in the Round Reading Room of the British Museum. Today, fifty-four bound volumes of material with a Leland provenance are held at the British Library. They include printed books by Leland and others (many inscribed, annotated or containing inserts), periodical articles and newspaper clippings, correspondence, publication drafts, vocabulary lists and various kinds of other research notes. Almost everything relates to the Roma people, their languages or their culture. Standard biographical reference sources such as The American National Biography Online2 and The Dictionary of Literary Biography3 record Leland material at Princeton, Harvard, Yale, New York Public Library and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, but none refers to the material held in London.
    [Show full text]
  • Kindle \ Songs of the Sea and Lays of the Land (1895). By: Charles
    Songs of the Sea and Lays of the Land (1895). by: Charles... > Book # 2RXP94WGQP Songs of th e Sea and Lays of th e Land (1895). by: Ch arles Godfrey Leland: Ch arles Godfrey Leland (A ugust 15, 1824 - March 20, 1903) W as an A merican Humorist, W riter, and Folklorist, Born in By Charles Godfrey Leland Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017. Paperback. Condition: New. Language: English . Brand New Book ***** Print on Demand *****. Charles Godfrey Leland (August 15, 1824 - March 20, 1903) was an American humorist, writer, and folklorist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was educated at Princeton University and in Europe. Leland worked in journalism, travelled extensively, and became interested in folklore and folk linguistics, publishing books and articles on American and European languages and folk traditions. He worked in a wide variety of trades, achieved recognition as the author of the comic Hans Breitmann s Ballads, fought in two conflicts, and wrote what was to become a primary source text for Neopaganism half a century later, Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches. Early life: Leland was born to Charles Leland, a commission merchant, and Charlotte Godfrey, on 15 August 1824 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Leland told a story that shortly after his birth his nurse took him to the family attic and performed a ritual involving a Bible, a key, a knife, lighted candles, money and salt to ensure a long life as a scholar and a wizard, a fact which his biographers have commented upon as foreshadowing his interest in... READ ONLINE [ 4.03 MB ] Reviews Complete information for publication fans.
    [Show full text]
  • Literary Encyclopedia: Charles Godfrey Leland
    Literary Encyclopedia: Charles Godfrey Leland Charles Godfrey Leland (1824-1903) Jodie Matthews (University of Huddersfield) Editor; Educationalist; Historian / Chronicler; Humorist; Journalist; Novelist; Poet; Scholar. Active 1841-1902 in United States Leland was born in Philadelphia to an old New England family. His father was a descendant of puritans who had arrived in America in the seventeenth century, while his motherŸs family came from Rhode Island and later moved to Massachusetts. Schooled in Philadelphia, Charles spent summers in New England. A delicate youth, he was tall and rather weak and had a passion for literature, making him seem eccentric to his peers. He had a self-confessed tendency to idealism and romance, something he later attributed to an inflammation of the brain suffered at a young age. At 14, his father gave him a share in the Philadelphia library, and, around this time, the budding scholar chanced on the works of Carlyle, leading him to discover Spinoza, Schelling, Kant and Fichte. At 17, he went to Princeton but was unhappy there. He wrote for the college journal, the Nassau Monthly, and graduated four years later. Soon after returning to Philadelphia he sailed for Europe, visiting the sights of Italy before studying at Heidelberg University. Here and in Munich, where he settled for a while as a student, he became enamored with German philosophical and drinking culture and would draw on this period of his life for the hugely popular series, Hans BreitmannŸs Ballads (1869-71). These comic ballads, following the adventures of an intoxicated German American who speaks in heavy dialect, served to provide comic relief in a society experiencing considerable European immigration and still riven by the consequences of the civil war.
    [Show full text]