Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/116

 TAYLOR

TAYLOR

city }ie reached in February, and wliilein London, awaiting aiii from home, was employed in mak- ing out catalogues and in packing books by Mr. Putnam, London agent of the American publish- ing tirm. He arrived in New York city, June 1, 1*46; visited Boston; published anonymously "Tije Norseman's Ride." 1S4G-47, wiiich Whittier copietl in tlie Xalioiial Era, and which through correspondence led to a loyal friendship with the poet ; was associate editor of the Pioneer, Phcenixville. Pa., 1846-47. -and published his foreign letters as Views Afoot in December, 1847. In the following January he removed to New York, where he was tirst employed by Charles Feimo Hoffman and as a teacher of belles-lettres in Miss Green's school ; later wiis connected with the Tribune, of wliicii he became a stockholder, 1S49; wiis editor of TJie Union Magazine and Christian Inquirer, March-September, 1848 ; wrote book-reviews for George R. Graham ; was New York correspondent for the Saturday Even- ing Post, aiul offered the permanent editorship of Grahatn's Magazine, which he did not accept, owing to tlu- financial condition of the paper. Througli Hoffman, with whom he lived, and N. P. Willis, he was introduced to the literary and social circles of New York. As correspondent of the Tribune, he investigated the gold fields in California. 1849-50, an account of liis observations appearing the same year in " Eldorado," and on Oct. 24. ISoO. was married to Mary S. Agnew, who died the following December 21. After editing the " Cyclop;edia of Literature and Fine Arts" he sailed as Tribune correspondent for Liverpool, April 19. 1851 ; spent some time in London ; ar- rived in Alexandria, Nov. 1, 1851, and persisted in traveling up the "White Nile ;" subsequently visited Palestine. Sicily, Italy, Spain, Asia Minor, and in May, 1853, under the auspices of tlie Trib- une, joined Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan, enlisting as master's mate and resigning after four months' service. While in Japan Humphrey Marshall, U.S. commissioner, offered to attach him to his staff. He reached New York. Dec. 20. 1853; lectured on "The Arabs," "India" and "Japan and Loo Choo," 1854-55. wrote voluminously, and wjis engaged in build- ing a summer residence on Pusey farm near Kennett. His health failing in July, 1855, he re- visited Germany, taking with him his sisters and brother, and on Dec. 1, 1856. set out for Norway and Lapland, which journey he described in Xorthern Travd (1857). He was married secondly. Octoljer, 1857, to Marie, daughter of Peter Andreas Hansen of Gotha, Germany, as- tronomer and director of the Dur-al observatory, and they h.vl one child. Lilian. ])orn Aug. 3, 1858, who married Dr. Kiliani of Halle, Germany. His wife translated several of his works into

German and subsequently edited his poems, plays and essays. After his marriage he visiteil Greece, Poland and Russia, and arrived at Kennett Square, Oct. 24, 1858; continued his connection with the Tr/6«He; contributed literary sketches of travel to the New York Mercury ; conducted extensive lecture tours, and dedicated his new home, " Cedarcroft," by a famous house-warming, Oct. 18-19, 1860. In 1801 his contributions to the press were " trumpet calls" to the defence of the Republic, " Scott and the Veteran" rousing the greatest enthusiasm, and guarded by a force of police he defended George William Curtis by an oration delivered in Brooklyn and in Philadel- phia. In May, 18G2, he was appointed secretary to Simon Cameron, U.S. minister to Russia ; was charge d'affaires at St. Petersburg, September- May, 1863, when he resigned, and for a time was occupied in the study of the life of Goethe in Gotha, returning to the United States upon the death of his brother. Col. Frederic Taylor, at Gettysburg. The year 1867 he spent in European travel, in letter writing and painting ; translated "Faust" at Corsica, 18G8 ; was non-resident lecturer on German literature at Cornell univer- sity, 1870-77, subsequently repeating the lectures before the Peabody Institute, Baltimore ; visited California for his health in the .spring of 1870 ; lectured upon earlie.st German literature in Ithaca, N.Y'',, 1871, and the same year was asso- ciate editor of Scribner's " Librarj' of Travel." In consequence of financial embarrassment he leased " Cedarcroft,"and removed to New Y'ork, whence he sailed, June 6, 1872, for Weimar, Ger- many, to collect materials for his lives of Goethe and Schiller, and where in January, 1873, he re- peated a lecture given in Hamburg the previous December, on American literature for the benefit of the Frauenverein, the whole court being pres- ent. Obliged to seek Italy for his health, he re- ported the Vienna exhibition of 1873 for the Tri- bune, contributed the Cairo letters, February- April, 1874, and as press correspondent visited Iceland on the occasion of its millenial anniver- sary. He returned to New Y'ork, Sept. 9, 1874 ; collected and published his letters as Egypt and Iceland ; was engaged in lecturing ; edited Apple- ton's " Picturesque Europe," and in 1876 resumed daily work on the Tribuy^e. He was api)oiiited U.S. minister to Germany b}- President Hayes in February, 1878, his appointment being the oc- casion of many receptions and banquets in his honor. He was made an honorary member of the Phi Beta Kappa society of Harvard college in 1850, writing at its reque.st the commencement poem of that year, " The American Legend ; " a member of the Century association, 1851 ; com- posed tho "Gettysburg Ode " for the di'dication of the national monument, July 1, 1869; the