Called “The American Byron”. Halleck was a celebrated poet during his lifetime but is hardly remembered today. Looking at some of his poems one quickly realizes why. Born in Guilford on July 8,1790, he lived to the age of 77, dying in Guilford November19,1867. Although he resided in New York City for many years, as personal secretary to philanthropist John Jacob Astor, at the age of 59 he returned to his home town where he lived with his sister Marie at 25 Water Street until his death. Educated at the Academy on Guilford Green, he left school at the age of 15 to help in the family business, leaving for New York when he was 20.

Fitz-Green Halleck

Halleck became friends with Joseph Rodman Drake, and this friendship produced poems which were satirical about New York society, They were published under the name Croaker Papers and apparently were very popular with the people they satirized..One of Halleck’s longer poems, Fanny, satirized politics, literature and the fashion of the time. Sold for fifty cents, it became so popular that it was selling for up to ten dollars soon after its printing. This gave Halleck the idea of adding 50 more verses to the original. When Drake died in 1820 of tuberculosis (consumption) at the age of 20, the bereft Halleck wrote “The Death of Joseph Rodman Drake.”

   There was a bit more to the story however. It seems that Halleck’s biographer, by a strange coincidence, was named John Wesley Matthew Hallock. This man believed that Halleck was homosexual and delved into his poetry to find evidence. Hallock somehow found out that Halleck had been romantically interested, at the age of 19, with Carlos Menie, a young Cuban. He also believed that Halleck was in love with Joseph Rodman Drake. Halleck never married and was extremely annoyed when new fathers would name their sons after him. “I am favored by affectionate fathers with epistles announcing that their eldest-born has been named after me...a calamity that costs me a letter of profound gratefulness.”

    Halleck obviously produced material that caught the imagination of 19th century America. In 1837 he was given an honorary degree from Columbia University, and in 1877, ten years after hes death,his statue was unveiled in New York’s Central Park. A poem was written for the occasion by John Greeenleaf Whittier, William Cullen Bryant presided at the ceremony and President Rutherford B. Hayes unveiled the statue.

   Halleck was gifted with charisma, charm and wit, and these carried him along in life. He was well-liked and friendly, and possibly those qualities took him farther than his poetic fferings. The following will give the reader an idea of his poetry:

“A justice of the peace, for the time being,
They bow to, but may turn him out next year,
They reverence their priest, but disagreeing
In price or creed, dismiss him without fear,
They have a natural talent for foreseeing
And knowing all things,...and should Park appear
From his long tour in Africa, to show
The Niger’s source, they’d meet with him ...we know.”

   A snippet at best, at least it gives one an idea of Halleck’s talent, and the reason why he is virtually unknown today..Halleck died in Guilford on November 19, 1867 at 25 Water Street. His very last words were to his sister:

“Marie, could you hand me my pantaloons, if you please.”