Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/61

Rh and authorship. &ldquo;Poems of Home and Travel,&rdquo; a collective edition of his verse, and a revised edition of &ldquo;Views Afoot,&rdquo; came out in 1855. His income grew large from copyrights, lecture-fees, and the &ldquo;Tribune&rdquo; stock. He edited a &ldquo;Cyclopædia of Modern Travel&rdquo; (New York, 1856). In July, 1855, he revisited Germany, and then made a journey to Norway and Lapland. His letters to the &ldquo;Tribune&rdquo; composed the volume &ldquo;Northern Travel&rdquo; (1858). He married in October, 1857, Marie Hansen, of Gotha, and spent the winter of 1857-'8 in Greece. In October, 1858, they returned to Kennett Square, bringing with them a daughter, Lilian Bayard, who now resides at Halle with her husband, Dr. Kiliani. Taylor laid the corner-stone of his country-home, &ldquo;Cedarcroft,&rdquo; upon a generous tract of land which he had purchased near Kennett Square. In 1861 the house was completed and became his residence. It is represented in the accompanying illustration. At the beginning of the civil war he spoke and wrote for the National cause, and in May, 1862, he was appointed secretary of legation, Gen. Simon Cameron being minister, at St. Petersburg. When left for a time in sole charge, he was influential, as the files of the state department show, in determining Russia to extend her sympathy and active friendship to the U. S. government. Resigning his office in 1863, he visited Gotha, where he obtained unusual facilities for his study of the life and writings of Goethe. After the loss of a brother, Col. Frederic Taylor, at Gettysburg, he went home in the autumn of 1863 and resumed his professional labors. In 1867 the Taylors revisited Switzerland and Italy, and the poet was brought near to death by an attack of Roman fever. He made a trip to Corsica in 1868. Two years were now devoted to his translation of &ldquo;Faust,&rdquo; which was published in the United States, England, and Germany. In 1870 he delivered a course of lectures, as professor of German literature, at Cornell university. He went again to Weimar in search of materials for biographies of Goethe and Schiller, and in February, 1874, revisited Italy and Egypt. Midsummer found him at the Millennial celebration of Iceland, which he described for the &ldquo;Tribune,&rdquo; and reached home in the autumn. In 1876 he once more occupied a desk in the &ldquo;Tribune&rdquo; office. On 4 July, 1876, he delivered the stately National ode at the Centennial celebration in Philadelphia. In 1877 his health failed, and after a partial recuperation he was nominated by President Hayes as minister to Berlin. His confirmation was followed by a notable series of popular testimonials, culminating with a banquet in New York, at which the poet Bryant presided, 4 April, 1878. He entered upon his official duties in May. His books of travel, subsequent to those heretofore named, were &ldquo;Travels in Greece and Rome&rdquo; (New York, 1859); &ldquo;At Home and Abroad&rdquo; (2 vols., 1859-'62); &ldquo;Colorado: a Summer Trip&rdquo; (1867); &ldquo;Byways of Europe&rdquo; (1869); &ldquo;Travels in Arabia&rdquo; (1872); and &ldquo;Egypt and Iceland&rdquo; (1874). Among his miscellaneous

works are a &ldquo;Masque,&rdquo; for the golden wedding of his parents (printed privately, 1868); a &ldquo;School History of Germany to 1871&rdquo; (1874); &ldquo;The Boys of other Countries&rdquo; (1876); and &ldquo;The Echo Club&rdquo; (1876). The last-named is a book of talk upon modern poets, with burlesque imitations of their verse, for which sparkling by-play Taylor had a native readiness. He also edited, with George Ripley, a &ldquo;Handbook of Literature and Fine Arts&rdquo; (1852), and, alone, the &ldquo;Illustrated Library of Travel&rdquo; (8 vols., 1871-'4), besides various translations. He began with much zest, in 1863, his career as a novelist, laying his plots and scenes in his own country. &ldquo;Hannah Thurston&rdquo; (1863), whose heroine is a Pennsylvania Quakeress, was followed by &ldquo;John Godfrey's Fortunes&rdquo; (1864); &ldquo;The Story of Kennett&rdquo; (1866); &ldquo;Joseph and his Friend&rdquo; (1870); and &ldquo;Beauty and the Beast, and Tales of Home&rdquo; (1872). &ldquo;The Story of Kennett&rdquo; is the most complete as a work of art. But it was as a poet that Taylor exerted all his powers and hoped to be remembered, and some of his verse reflects his highest creative mood. His later books of poetry comprise &ldquo;The Poet's Journal&rdquo; (Boston, 1862): &ldquo;Poems&rdquo; (1865); &ldquo;The Picture of St. John,&rdquo; a romantic art-poem (1869); &ldquo;Ballad of Abraham Lincoln&rdquo; (1869); &ldquo;The Masque of the Gods&rdquo; (1872); &ldquo;Lars: a Pastoral of Norway&rdquo; (1873); &ldquo;The Prophet: a Tragedy&rdquo; (1874); &ldquo;Home-Pastorals&rdquo; (1875); &ldquo;The National Ode&rdquo; (1876); and &ldquo;Prince Deukalion: a Lyrical Drama&rdquo; (1878). His poetry is striking for qualities that appeal to the ear and eye, finished, sonorous in diction and rhythm, at times too rhetorical, but rich in sound, color, and metrical effects. His early models were Byron and Shelley, and his more ambitious lyrics and dramas exhibit the latter's peculiar, often vague, spirituality. &ldquo;Lars,&rdquo; somewhat after the manner of Tennyson, is his longest and most attractive narrative poem. &ldquo;Prince Deukalion&rdquo; was designed for a masterpiece; its blank verse and choric interludes are noble in spirit and mould. Some of Taylor's songs, oriental idyls, and the true and tender Pennsylvanian ballads, have passed into lasting favor, and show the native quality of his poetic gift. His fame rests securely upon his unequalled rendering of &ldquo;Faust&rdquo; in the original metres, of which the first and second parts appeared in 1870 and 1871. His commentary upon Part II. for the first time interpreted the motive and allegory of that unique structure. During his one summer in Germany he was able only to revise the proofs of &ldquo;Prince Deukalion&rdquo; and to write an &ldquo;Epicedium&rdquo; on the death of Bryant. Tributes were paid to his memory at Berlin, Berthold Auerbach pronouncing an eloquent address. His remains, on arriving at New York, were honored with a solemn reception by the German societies and an oration by Algernon S. Sullivan. The body lay in state at the city-hall, was then removed to Kennett, and there interred, 15 March, 1879. Posthumous collections of Taylor's miscellanies, &ldquo;Studies in German Literature&rdquo; (1879), and &ldquo;Essays and Notes&rdquo; (1880), were edited by George H. Boker and Mrs. Taylor. In person he was of a handsome and commanding figure, with an oriental yet frank countenance, a rich voice, and engaging smile and manner. &mdash; His wife, Marie Hansen, b. in Gotha, Germany, 2 June, 1829, is the daughter of the late Prof. Peter A. Hansen, founder of the Erfurt observatory. She zealously promoted her husband's literary career, and translated into German his &ldquo;Greece&rdquo; (Leipsic, 1858); &ldquo;Hannah Thurston&rdquo; (Hamburg, 1863); &ldquo;Story of Kennett&rdquo; (Gotha, 1868); &ldquo;Tales of Home&rdquo; (Berlin, 1879); &ldquo;Studies in German Literature&rdquo; (Leipsic, 1880); and notes