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Bayard Taylor (January 11, 1825 – December 19, 1878) was an American poet, literary critic, translator, and travel author. ==Life and work== Taylor was born on January 11, 1825,〔Nelson, Randy F. ''The Almanac of American Letters''. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1981: 38. ISBN 0-86576-008-X〕 in Kennett Square in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He was the fourth son, the first to survive to maturity, of the Quaker couple, Joseph and Rebecca (née Way) Taylor.〔Wermuth, Paul Charles. ''Bayard Taylor''. Twayne Publishers, 1973: 13. ISBN 0-8057-0718-2〕 His father was a wealthy farmer. Bayard received his early instruction in an academy at West Chester, Pennsylvania, and later at nearby Unionville. At the age of seventeen, he was apprenticed to a printer in West Chester.〔 This cites Smyth (1896) and Howells (1901).〕 The influential critic and editor Rufus Wilmot Griswold encouraged him to write poetry. The volume that resulted, ''Ximena, or the Battle of the Sierra Morena, and other Poems'', was published at in 1844 and dedicated to Griswold.〔Bayless, Joy. ''Rufus Wilmot Griswold: Poe's Literary Executor''. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1943. p. 128〕 Using the money from his poetry and an advance for travel articles, he visited parts of England, France, Germany and Italy, making largely pedestrian tours for almost two years. He sent accounts of his travels to the ''Tribune,'' ''The Saturday Evening Post,'' and ''The United States Gazette''.〔 In 1846, he published a collection of those articles in two volumes as ''Views Afoot, or Europe seen with Knapsack and Staff''.〔 That publication resulted in an invitation to serve as an editorial assistant for ''Graham's Magazine'' for a few months in 1848.〔Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson. ''The Literary History of Philadelphia''. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1906: 273. ISBN 1-932109-45-5.〕 That same year, Horace Greeley, editor of the ''New York Tribune'', hired Taylor and sent him to California to report on the gold rush. He returned by way of Mexico and published another two-volume collection of travel essays, ''El Dorado; or, Adventures in the Path of Empire'' (1850). Within two weeks of release, the books sold 10,000 copies in the U.S. and 30,000 in Great Britain.〔 In 1849 Taylor married Mary Agnew, who died of tuberculosis the next year.〔("Cedarcroft: Bayard Taylor House" ), Living Places Website, with excerpt from 1971 nomination to National Register of Historic Places, accessed May 30, 2011〕 That same year, Taylor won a popular competition sponsored by P. T. Barnum to write an ode for the "Swedish Nightingale", singer Jenny Lind. His poem "Greetings to America" was set to music by Julius Benedict and performed by the singer at numerous concerts on her tour of the United States.〔("The Vault at Pfaff's - Biographies - Individuals," ) A site dedicated to denizens of a popular 19th century watering hole, frequented by such characters as Walt Whitman, accessed April 19, 2015〕 In 1851 he traveled to Egypt, where he followed the Nile River as far as 12° 30' N. He also traveled in Palestine and Mediterranean countries, writing poetry based on his experiences. Toward the end of 1852, he sailed from England to Calcutta, and then to China, where he joined the expedition of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry to Japan.〔 The results of these journeys were published as ''A Journey to Central Africa; or, Life and Landscapes from Egypt to the Negro Kingdoms of the White Nile'' (1854); ''The Lands of the Saracen; or, Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily and Spain'' (1854); and ''A Visit to India, China and Japan in the Year 1853'' (1855).〔 He returned to the U.S. on December 20, 1853, and undertook a successful public lecturer tour that extended from Maine to Wisconsin. After two years, he went to northern Europe to study Swedish life, language and literature. The trip inspired his long narrative poem ''Lars''. His series of articles ''Swedish Letters to the Tribune'' were republished as ''Northern Travel: Summer and Winter Pictures'' (1857). During October 1857, he married Maria Hansen, the daughter of the Danish/German astronomer Peter Hansen. The couple spent the following winter in Greece.〔 In 1859 Taylor returned to the American West and lectured at San Francisco. In 1862, he was appointed to the U.S. diplomatic service as secretary of legation at St. Petersburg, and acting minister to Russia for a time during 1862-3 after the resignation of Ambassador Simon Cameron. He published his first novel ''Hannah Thurston'' in 1863. The newspaper ''The New York Times'' first praised him for "break() new ground with such assured success". A second much longer appreciation in the same newspaper was thoroughly negative, describing "one pointless, aimless situation leading to another of the same stamp, and so on in maddening succession". It concluded: "The platitudes and puerilities which might otherwise only raise a smile, when confronted with such pompous pretensions, excite the contempt of every man who has in him the feeblest instincts of common honesty in literature." It proved successful enough for his publisher to announce another novel from him the next year. In 1864 Taylor and his wife Maria returned to the U.S. In 1866, Taylor traveled to Colorado and made a large loop through the northern mountains on horseback with a group that included William Byers, editor of the newspaper ''Rocky Mountain News''. His letters describing this adventure were later compiled and published as ''Colorado: A Summer Trip''. His late novel, ''Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania'' (1870), first serialized in the magazine ''The Atlantic'', was described as a story of young man in rural Pennsylvania and "the troubles which arise from the want of a broader education and higher culture". It is believed to be based on the poets Fitz-Greene Halleck and Joseph Rodman Drake, and since the late 20th-century has been called America's first gay novel. Taylor spoke at the dedication of a monument to Halleck in his native town, Guilford, Connecticut. He said that in establishing this monument to an American poet "we symbolize the intellectual growth of the American people.... The life of the poet who sleeps here represents the long period of transition between the appearance of American poetry and the creation of an appreciative and sympathetic audience for it."〔Hallock, John W. M. ''The American Byron: Homosexuality and the Fall of Fitz-Greene Halleck''. University of Wisconsin Press, 2000: 151. ISBN 0-299-16804-2〕 Taylor imitated and parodied the writings of various poets in ''Diversions of the Echo Club'' (London, 1873; Boston, 1876). In 1874 Taylor traveled to Iceland to report for the ''Tribune'' on the one thousandth anniversary of the first European settlement there. During March 1878, the U.S. Senate confirmed his appointment as United States Minister to Prussia. Mark Twain, who traveled to Europe on the same ship, was envious of Taylor's command of German. A few months after arriving in Berlin, Taylor died there on December 19, 1878. His body was returned to the U.S. and buried in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.〔Ehrlich, Eugene and Gorton Carruth. ''The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to the United States.'' New York: Oxford University Press, 1982: 200. ISBN 0-19-503186-5〕 The ''New York Times'' published his obituary on its front page, referring to him as "a great traveler, both on land and paper."〔Melton, Jeffrey Alan. ''Mark Twain, Travel Books, and Tourism: The Tide of a Great Popular Movement.'' Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2002: 81. ISBN 0-8173-1160-2〕 Shortly after his death, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a memorial poem in Taylor's memory, at the urging of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bayard Taylor」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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