Park Benjamin, Sr.

Park Benjamin, Sr. (1809–1864), was well known in his time, as an American poet, journalist, editor and founder of several newspapers.

Biography

He was born in British Guiana, August 14, 1809, but was early sent to New England, and graduated from Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. He practiced law in Boston, but abandoned it for editorial work there and later in New York.

On July 8, 1839, he joined with Rufus Wilmot Griswold to produce "The Evening Tattler", a journal which promised "the sublimest songs of the great poets–the eloquence of the most renowned orators–the heart-entrancing legends of love and chivalry–the laughter-loving jests of all lands". In addition to fiction and poetry, it also published foreign news, local gossip, jokes, and New York police reports. [Bayless, Joy. "Rufus Wilmot Griswold: Poe's Literary Executor". Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1943. p. 29] In 1840 Benjamin helped to found "The New World" and after other brief editorial ventures became a lecturer, public reader, and periodical writer. He was sued for libel by James Fenimore Cooper, and was on personal terms with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe. Poe, as a critic, singled him out as the greatest American writer of sonnets. Walt Whitman, however, one of Benjamin's employees and protégés, hated his poetry. [Poets.org [http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19207] ] By the time his first son, Park Benjamin, Jr., was born, he had settled down to quiet retirement in Long Island. When the 20th century rolled around, Park Benjamin, Sr. was virtually forgotten. Benjamin died, after a brief illness, on September 12, 1864. cite book |title=Cyclopaedia of American Literature: Embracing Personal and Critical Notices |last=Duyckinck |first=Evert Augustus |authorlink= |coauthors=George LongDuyckinck |year=1866 |publisher=Charles Scrbner and Company |location=New York |isbn= |pages=p. 53 ] He is now known only through his shorter poems, of which "The Old Sexton" is a favorite of the anthologist.

His son was also a writer, as well as a patent lawyer, physician.

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