Sidney Lanier

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Sidney Lanier

Sidney Clopton Lanier (born February 3, 1842 in Macon , Georgia , † September 7, 1881 in Lynn , North Carolina ) was an American poet and musician . He was next to Edgar Allan Poe as the most famous American poet of the 19th century.

Live and act

Lanier's grave in Baltimore

Sidney Lanier was the son of Judge Robert Sampson Lanier, of Huguenot ancestry, and his Scottish wife, Mary Jane Anderson. He studied at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta from 1856 and later worked as a tutor until the outbreak of the American Civil War .

In the spring of 1861 he volunteered for the Confederate service . In 1864, Lanier was captured by Union Army soldiers and imprisoned for five months in Point Lookout, Florida Jail . During his wandering home he fell ill with tuberculosis , the consequences of which he later suffered repeatedly.

After the war, Lanier worked in Georgia , Alabama, and Texas as a tutor, teacher, and attorney, writing novels and poetry on the side. In 1867 he married his childhood sweetheart Mary Day; from this marriage there were four sons. His first poems were published in 1869. He wrote his first novel about his experiences in the war within three weeks. In October 1877 he moved to Baltimore and made a living by lecturing on English literature . Two years later he became a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University .

Because of his poor health, he and his family moved to the mountains of North Carolina . Sidney Lanier died in Lynn on September 7, 1881. After his death, his fame rose steadily and on August 7, 1920 he was named in honor of the 155th County of Georgia in Lanier County .

Two lakes also bear his name: one northeast of Atlanta , another in Tryon County (North Carolina) .

Works (selection)

  • 1867 Tiger Lilies (novel)
  • 1875 Corn
  • 1877 The Song of the Chattahoochee (poems)
  • 1879 The Marshes of Glynn
  • 1880 Science of English Verse
  • 1880 sunrise
  • 1883 The English Novel
  • 1889 Letters of Sidney Lanier 1866–1881 (letters)
  • 1902 Shakspere [sic] and his Forerunners

literature

  • Michel Barrucand: Sidney Lanier (1842-1881). Une poète musicien . Dissertation, University of Nice 1995.
  • Jack de Bellis: Sidney Lanier. Twayne Publishers, New York 1972.
  • Jack De Bellis: Sidney Lanier, Henry Timrod , and Paul Hamilton Hayne . A reference guide . Hall, Boston, Mass. 1978, ISBN 0-8161-7967-0 .
  • Jane S. Gabin: A Living Minstrelsy. The Poetry and Music of Sidney Lanier . Macon, Ga. Mercer University Press, 1985, ISBN 0-86554-155-8 .
  • Edd W. Parks: Sidney Lanier. The man, the poet, the critic . University Press, Atlanta, Ga. 1968.

Web links

Commons : Sidney Lanier  - collection of images, videos and audio files