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THE AMERICAN BYRON

Name: THE AMERICAN BYRON
Author: John W.M. Hallock
ISBN: 0-299-16800-X

HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE FALL OF FITZ-GREENE HALLECK

by John W.M. Hallock ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2000

Hallock's great accomplishment here is a documentation of literary homophobia. It will take another writer to give us a...

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In his new study of a 19th-century American poet, Hallock uncovers convincing evidence that homophobic critics forced him into selfcensorship, isolation, and, ultimately, silence.

Are we talking about Walt Whitman, that Great Gay Poet of Mannahatta? No, of course not. Whitman was attacked but never gave in. It was FitzGreene Halleck (1790–1867), the dashing New Yorker who strutted and fretted his hour upon the stage and then was heard no more. He was madly in love with J.R. Drake, with whom he wrote the “Croaker Papers” (a series of poems satirizing New York society). The Croakers were the talk of the town, and so were Halleck and Drake, although they published the poems under pseudonyms. But Drake married a woman, and this left Halleck in a snit for the rest of his life. When Drake died at the age of 25, Halleck was mortified with grief and produced the widely anthologized elegy ``On the Death of Joseph Rodman Drake.'' He wrote satires—“Fanny,'' for example—that earned comparison with Byron, but this is a bit of a stretch. Halleck lived a quiet life disconnected from the history unfolding around him. He hated democracy. He called himself a monarchist. He refused to write about the Civil War because he cared for neither side. His last words were ``Marie, hand me my pantaloons, if you please.'' Byron died at war. Whitman at least got to the battleground, and he was one who never let the critics stop him from writing, even if he did censor his own lines from time to time. Hallock, a distant relative of Halleck, unfortunately never inherited his ancestor's felicity with words. He seems to have a perverse aversion to narrative, and his writing is marred by the tittering wit of the academic—as when he writes of Halleck's phallic imagery in an early poem: ``Stiff memory is penetrated by a metaphoric dart, akin to Cupid's arrow.''

Hallock's great accomplishment here is a documentation of literary homophobia. It will take another writer to give us a compelling biography of this once-famous poet.

Pub Date: April 1, 2000

ISBN: 0-299-16800-X

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Univ. of Wisconsin

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2000

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.