William Cullen Bryant papers, 1872

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
170 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Special Collections Public Services & Reference Staff
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Restrictions:

This collection is open for research.

This collection is open for research.

Preferred citation:

MSS 6244 Addition, William Cullen Bryant letter to Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

MSS6244-ah addition, Manuscript: Landscapes from the Works of William Cullen Bryant, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Summary

Extent:
.03 Cubic Feet
Creator:
Stuart Bennett Rare Books and Bryant, William Cullen, 1794-1878
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

MSS 6244 Addition, William Cullen Bryant letter to Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

MSS6244-ah addition, Manuscript: Landscapes from the Works of William Cullen Bryant, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains a letter from William Cullen Bryant, American poet, journalist, and longtime editor of the New York Evening Post, to Elizabeth Oakes Smith, poet and essayist. In 1872 Bryant made a speech in New York on May 22 at the dedication of John Quincey Adams Ward's statue of Shakespeare on the Mall in Central Park. Here, a week after the speech, Bryant acknowledges Mrs. Oakes Smith's praise: "I completed it in the hope that it might not altogether displease such judges as yourself, and having succeeded in that, my ambition is fully gratified."

Manuscript poems from the Works of William Cullen Bryant with beautiful illustrations of nature painted by students from the Hudson River School of Landscape Painting.

Biographical / historical:

William Cullen Bryant (November 3, 1794 – June 12, 1878) was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post. Born in Massachusetts, he started his career as a lawyer but showed an interest in poetry early in his life. He soon relocated to New York and took up work as an editor at various newspapers. He became one of the most significant poets in early literary America and has been grouped among the fireside poets for his accessible, popular poetry.

William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) was a prominent figure in the development of American literature and worked for over 50 years as the editor of the New York Evening Post. Bryant's success in literature began when he was 17 years old through the publication of his acclaimed poem Thanatopsis in the North American Review. Early in his career, Bryant worked as an attorney before finding his calling as an editor at the New York Review and then The New York Evening Post. He used his position to publish works on a variety of controversial topics including free trade, workingmen's rights, abolition, and free speech. Along with using his role to advance social causes, Bryant was also a key member of the Democratic Party, and later a founding member of the Republican Party.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard