Bryant, William Cullen

born Nov. 3, 1794, Cummington, Mass., U.S.

died June 12, 1878, New York, N.Y.

U.S. poet.

At age 17 Bryant wrote "Thanatopsis," a meditation on nature and death that remains his best-known poem; influenced by deism, it in turn influenced Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Admitted to the bar at age 21, he spent nearly 10 years as an attorney, a profession he hated. His Poems (1821), including "To a Waterfowl," secured his reputation. In 1825 he moved to New York City, where for almost 50 years (1829–78) he was editor in chief of the Evening Post, which he transformed into an organ of progressive thought.

William Cullen Bryant, detail of an oil painting by Daniel Huntington, 1866; in the Brooklyn Museum ...

Courtesy of The Brooklyn Museum, New York

* * *

▪ American author

born Nov. 3, 1794, Cummington, Mass., U.S.

died June 12, 1878, New York City

 poet of nature, best remembered for “Thanatopsis,” and editor for 50 years of the New York Evening Post.

      A descendant of early Puritan immigrants, Bryant at 16 entered the sophomore class of Williams College. Because of finances and in hopes of attending Yale, he withdrew without graduating. Unable to enter Yale, he studied law under private guidance at Worthington and at Bridgewater and at 21 was admitted to the bar. He spent nearly 10 years in Plainfield and at Great Barrington as an attorney, a calling for which he held a lifelong aversion. At 26 Bryant married Frances Fairchild, with whom he was happy until her death nearly half a century later. In 1825 he moved to New York City to become coeditor of the New York Review. He became an editor of the Evening Post in 1827; in 1829 he became editor in chief and part owner and continued in this position until his death. His careful investment of his income made Bryant wealthy. He was an active patron of the arts and letters.

      The religious conservatism imposed on Bryant in childhood found expression in pious doggerel; the political conservatism of his father stimulated “The Embargo” (1808), in which the 13-year-old poet demanded the resignation of President Jefferson. But in “Thanatopsis” (from the Greek “a view of death”), which he wrote when he was 17 and which made him famous when it was published in The North American Review in 1817, he rejected Puritan dogma for Deism; thereafter he was a Unitarian. Turning also from Federalism, he joined the Democratic party and made the Post an organ of free trade, workingmen's rights, free speech, and abolition. Bryant was for a time a Free-Soiler and later one of the founders of the Republican party. As a man of letters, Bryant securely established himself at the age of 27 with Poems (1821). In his later years he devoted considerable time to translations.

      Bryant will be remembered longest as the poet of his native Berkshire hills and streams in such poems as “Thanatopsis” and “To a Waterfowl.”

* * *