Robert Montgomery Bird

Infobox Writer
name = Robert Montgomery Bird


imagesize =
caption =
pseudonym =
birthdate = 1806
birthplace =
deathdate = 1854
deathplace =
occupation = Novelist, playwright, photographer, physician
nationality = American
period =
genre =
subject =
movement =
spouse =
children =
relatives =
influences =
influenced =


website =

Robert Montgomery Bird (February 5, 1806cite book
last = Looby
first = Christopher
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Introduction to "Sheppard Lee: Written By Himself"
publisher = New York Review of Books
date = 2008
location =
pages = xxii
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = ] - 1854) was an American novelist, playwright, photographer, and physician.

Background

Bird was born in New Castle, Delaware on February 5, 1806.Ehrlich, Eugene and Gorton Carruth. "The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to the United States". New York: Oxford University Press, 1982: 217. ISBN 0195031865] After attending the New Castle Academy and Germantown Academy, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1824. He began to write fiction during his time in medical school and by 1827 had published in the "Philadelphia Monthly Magazine." After graduating from medical school, Bird attempted to begin a medical practice but became discouraged after one year and left medicine to pursue a literary career.

Career

In 1828, Bird's play "Pelopidas" won a $1000 prize offered by the actor Edwin Forrest, but was never produced. Instead, Bird wrote another play for Forrest, "The Gladiator", which was produced in 1831. cite book
last = Looby
first = Christopher
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Introduction to "Sheppard Lee: Written By Himself"
publisher = New York Review of Books
date = 2008
location =
pages = xxiii
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = ] Bird wrote several other plays for Forrest. Forrest had promised to pay Bird more for these plays if they proved successful. Though they were, Forrest refused to give Bird additional money; Bird's frustration with Forrest pushed him into writing novels. These include "Calavar" (1834), "The Infidel" (1835), "The Hawks of Hawk-Hollow" (1835), "Sheppard Lee" (1836), "Nick of the Woods" (1837), and "The Adventures of Robin Day" (1839). [cite book
last = Looby
first = Christopher
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Introduction to "Sheppard Lee: Written By Himself"
publisher = New York Review of Books
date = 2008
location =
pages = xxiii-xxiv
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = ]

Bird also pursued a number of other interests. In 1837, he began a career as a journalist, working as the Associate Editor for "The American Monthly Magazine." He became the editor of the "North American Magazine and United States Gazette" in 1847. He also taught medicine at the Pennsylvania Medical College and ran for Congress in 1842 (an attempt which was later aborted). [cite book
last = Looby
first = Christopher
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Introduction to "Sheppard Lee: Written By Himself"
publisher = New York Review of Books
date = 2008
location =
pages = xxv
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = ]

According to Christopher Looby, "Bird's biographers say that the intensity of these literary labors led to a breakdown of his health, possibly including a mental disorder, and that he retired to a farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1840 to restore himself." During the final years of his life, Bird was an active photographer. [cite book
last = Looby
first = Christopher
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Introduction to "Sheppard Lee: Written By Himself"
publisher = New York Review of Books
date = 2008
location =
pages = xxiv
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = ]

References

*Looby, Christopher. "Introduction." "Sheppard Lee: Written By Himself" by Robert Montgomery Bird. New York: "New York Review of Books", 2008. xv-xliii. [ [http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781590172292 "Sheppard Lee: Written By Himself"] ]

Notes

External links

Sources
* [http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3ARobert%20Montgomery%20Bird%20-contributor%3Agutenberg%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts Works by Robert Montgomery Bird] at Internet Archive (scanned books, illustrated, color)
* [http://books.google.com/books?q=inauthor:robert+inauthor:montgomery+inauthor:bird&as_brr=1 Works by Robert Montgomery Bird] at Google Books (scanned books, illustrated)
* (plain text and HTML)Other
*Daniel Traister. [http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/rbm/bird/ "Robert Montgomery Bird: Writer and Artist"] , an exhibition at the Kamin Gallery, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, University of Pennsylvania, Feb-2003.
* [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9015349/Robert-Montgomery-Bird "Robert Montgomery Bird"] , short biography, Encyclopedia Britannica Online
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5221/is_2005/ai_n19135017 "Robert Montgomery Bird"] , short biography, UXL Newsmakers, 2005.
*Clement Edgar Foust. [http://www.archive.org/details/lifedramatic00fousrich "The Life and Dramatic Works of Robert Montgomery Bird"] . New York, Knickerbocker Press. 1919.