Royall Tyler
Royall Tyler (born June 18, 1757 in Boston , Province of Massachusetts Bay , † August 26, 1826 in Brattleboro , Vermont ) was an American lawyer and playwright .
Life
Tyler was from Puritan Boston, attended Harvard University , was a soldier and worked as a lawyer. He was the author of the first professionally produced American play The Contrast (1787), which is primarily about the contrast between America and Europe and is formally reminiscent of English comedies of the time. With Jonathan, the Yankee, Tyler achieved a very popular “creation” for the American stage.
In 1801 he was elected judge at the Vermont Supreme Court , later chairman. A candidacy for the United States Senate in 1812 was unsuccessful.
Tyler had several illegitimate children, including the mother of his future wife. This married woman later committed suicide as a result. Tyler himself died of cancer that had gnawed his entire face and disfigured him for years.
His written estate and that of his wife Mary Palmer Tyler (1775–1866) are now in the Vermont Historical Society Library ( VHS ).
Tyler was the model for the character of Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon , the villain in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The House with the Seven Gables . Hawthorne's wife was a niece of Tyler's wife, Mary Palmer Tyler.
Web links
- Literature by and about Royall Tyler in the catalog of the German National Library
- Literature by and about Royall Tyler in the WorldCat bibliographic database
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Tyler, Royall |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American lawyer and playwright |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 18, 1757 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Boston , Massachusetts |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 26, 1826 |
| Place of death | Brattleboro , Vermont |