Arnold, George (1834-1865)

Arnold is described by Browne as "a very clever writer in prose and verse, a regular contributor to the Saturday Press, and remarkable for his versatility" (155). Browne mentions that Arnold was blessed with many "gifts," being "good-looking, graceful, brilliant" (155). Browne mentions that Arnold died three years prior to the publication of his text (about 1866), and that several of "his easy, almost impromtu poems" have been published posthumously (155).

Browne expresses what appears to be genuine praise for Arnold's work, stating that "he sang in a careless way the pleasures and pains of love, the joys of wine, the charm of indolence, the gayety and worthlesness of existence in a true Anacreontic vein" (155).

Browne seems to insinuate that a poet such as Arnold was not destined to live a long life: "From such a temperment as his, earnest and continued exertion was not to be expected. Like Voiture he trifled life away in pointed phrases and tuneful numbers; but gained a large circle of devoted friends. At three and thirty he slipped out of the World which had been much and little to him, and left behind him many sincere mourners who speak of him still with words of love and moistened eyes" (155).

One of Henry Clapp's assosciates at Pfaff's when it was "a famous resort back in the fifties."

Figaro attributes part of his "indisposition" and trouble remembering anything to Arnold's being seriously ill at Riverside (168).

Figaro writes that "McArone won't believe it, but I positively feel young again" (152). Figaro also claims that Arnold should have been present at Miss Olive Logan's readings in order to hear how well his "Jolly Pedagogue" is read by a woman (153).

Figaro lists "McArone" as one of the parties involved in the Saturday Press (56).

Mentioned as a writer Whitman met at Pfaff's.

Arnold is mentioned as one of the "men of distinct talent" who patronized Pfaff's beer cellar (1).

Mentioned as one of the Bohemians at Pfaff's "gossiped" about by Rufus B. Wilson in a "reminiscent letter to the Galveston News."

He is mentioned as part of "a group of journalists and magazine-writers of great repute in their own day, but as remote as Prester John to ours" with whom Aldrich was familiar during his days in the "Literary Bohemia" in New York (38).

Greenlset describes him as one who has gone the way of the "journalists of yester-year." Greenslet notes that "Handsome George Arnold's sincere and melodious verse was collected after his early death by Mr. Winter, in whose introduction we may read the story of his kindly, ineffective life" (39).

Hahn says he was a regular.

This text identifies the following pseudonyms: Chevalier M'Arone (23), George Garrulous (39), Graham Allen (40), Mc Arone (62), Pierrot (77).

His toast to the "Success to the Southern Arms" leads to a response from Whitman that prompts a violent arguement between the two men. Whitman ends his Pfaff's association during the Civil War after Arnold grabs his hair during this argument.

He is described as one of the "others who rallied" at Pfaff's.

The column announces that a volume of Arnold's poetry published by Ticknor & Fields is due in two weeks (4).

Arnold is mentioned as one of the "happy, careless children of Bohemia" who attended the "carnivals in Pfaff's cellar" (5).

Parry writes that in the behavioral trends of the group, Arnold "attempted mild melancholy" (9). Of the poets who wrote about Pfaff's, Arnold wrote a poem about how "We were all very merry at Pfaff's" (24).

Parry writes about Arnold's fight with Whitman at Pfaff's:

"George Arnold was not of their camp in this war. His famous fight with Walt was really only a matter of quick temper, a mere misunderstanding. The trouble with Arnold was that though he, a pastor's son, knew his drinks and how to take them, he never learned to hold them properly. He became quarrelsome though not exactly drunk during more than one party. Once, George Augustus Sala, the visiting British writer, tried to make friends with the American frolickers by deriding Benedict Arnold. Before Arnold violently protested and it ruined the party. He said afterwards that the was not of Benedict's stock, but that he willingly misrepresented himself as his descendant the better to defend the memory of the man.

"George Arnold toll sides with unpopular issues merely for the fun of it. He was all for the Union from the very beginnning of the conflict, but he could not bear the sight of everybody protesting his loudest patriotism for the same cause. So he made his patriotism secret and came out with challenging speeches in defense of the South. One night at Pfaff's he made the error of toasting the Southern arms. Walt sprang up. For the moment he forgot his godlike benignity and broke out with a speech of patriotic vehemence. Arnold retaliated by bending his arm over and across the table and and pulling hard at the Jovian brush which Howells liked the best of all the Pfaffian scenery. The rivals were separated, and it was about then that Whitman shook the Pfaffian part of Broadway's dust from his soles forever. Years later he was to say about his role at Pfaff's: 'I was much better satisfied to listen to a fight than to take part in it'" (41-42).

According to Parry, Whitman would later forgive Arnold for this incident (43). According to Parry, Arnold's death, "whom Clapp dearly loved" began him a bout of "suicial drinking" (47). Arnold died of paralysis. An editorial written after Clapp's death titled "The Late Henry Clapp. A Bohemian's Checkered Life" (April 16, 1875, named Arnold as one of "many a young and promising writer" who he had ruined in addition to himself "by the example of his cynicism and intemperance":

"Without Clapp the Bohemia of New York would not have existed, and it was Bohemianism that slew Arnold and the rest. Clapp lived to preach in his own life a better temperance lecture than he ever delivered in his younger days" (47-48).

Arnold died of paralysis November, 1865. "Philistines hostile to Henry Clapp ascribed Arnold's end to the results of dissipation, nto which Clapp had allegedly enticed him. The accusation was probably groundless, but just the same it made Arnold's death so mansardish. The news was deemed important enough to be telegraphed to the chief newspapers of the land, and in distant San Francisco, young Bret Harte was moved to a tearful article in the Californian. Bret had never met George personally, but he knew his verses and burlesques. Now he shuddered as he imagined the poet-humorist's death. 'Phials and nauseous mixtures flanked his ink stand,'but 'his light, gossiping pen was never dipped in the ugly fluid.' Bret ended by bewailing the fate that compelled a humorist to smile even on his deathbed" (54-55). According to Parry, as the works of Pfaffians spread across the country, Harte would discover the works of Arnold and "follow in his footsteps" (212).

In the 1890s, a discussion of Arnold's life and poetry appeared in the Bohemian in the literary ntes; however, due to hestitancy to discuss Bohemianism, references to Pfaff's beer and his life were not referred to as such (96).

Arnold is not mentioned, but McArone is.

A regular in the bohemian circle at Pfaff's.

Starr mentions that the impending Civil War caused tempers to flare among the exited crowd at Pfaff's. George Arnold wrote a series of "burlesques of war correspondence" by "McAroni" that were featured in Vanity Fair. In these pieces, Arnold "posed as one of 'the chivalry' defending the Southern Cause." This position would prompt an argument wiht Walt Whitman (8).

Arnold "wrote good newspaper poetry at a time when most newspaper poetry was bad" (469). The writer suggests, however, that the fond memory of Arnold, who died at a young age, "has softened, to the critic's eye, many rough and careless touches" (469).

"At the outbreak of the Southern rebellion Walt Whitman and George Arnold came to an unpleasantness while enjoying their usual after-dinner punch. They were sitting opposite each other at the table. George was for rebellion and Walt was opposed. George was full of 'treasonism' and Walt was full of 'patriotism'" (166).

During the Civil War, Appelton mentions that Arnold was stationed in Staten Island.

Winter notes that Arnold was a member of Clapp's circle at Pfaff's. He is described as "handsome, gay, breezy, good-natured,--one of the sweetest poets in our country who have sung the beauties of Nature and the tenderness of true love; and he never came [to Pfaff's] without bringing sunshine" (64).

In response to Howells' criticisms of the Bohemians and in a discussion of their writing, Winter states: "Revelry requires money: at the time Mr. Howells met those Bohemians, -- with the 'damp locks' and the 'frenzied eyes,' -- it is probably that the group did not possess enough money among them all to buy a quart bottle of champagne. Furthermore, they were writers of remarkable quality, and they were under the stringent necessity of working continually and very hard: and it seems pertinent to suggest that such a poem, for instance, as George Arnold's 'Old Pedagogue,' or Fitz-James O'Brien's Ode in commemoration of Kane, or Charles Dawson Shanly's 'Walker of the Snow,' is not to be produced from under the stimulation of alcohol. Literature is a matter of brains, not drugs. It would be equally just and sensible for American criticism to cherish American literature, and to cease from carping about the infirmities, whether actual or putative, of persons dead and gone, who can no longer defend themselves" (93).

Winter describes him as "the most entirely beloved member" of the Bohemian group. He continues that Arnold's "manly character, his careless good-humor, his blithe temperment, his personal beauty, and his winning manners made him attractive to everybody" (94).

Of Arnold's writing: "His numerous stories have not been collected, but his poems (gathered and published under my editorial care) survive, and their fluent, melodious blending of rueful mirth and tender feeling with lovely tints of natural description, -- constituting and irresistable charm, -- have commended them to a wide circle of readers" (94).

Winter reports that "one of the saddest days of my life was the day when we laid him in his grave, in Greenwood" (94).

Winter quotes Arnold for a description of Fitz-James O'Brien on p.99. Arnold was among the dinner party that O'Brien held at Delmonico's using $35.00 that he borrowed from Aldrich. Aldrich was not invited, but wrote to Winter about the event. Aldrich claims that Arnold, Clapp, and possibly Winter were in attendance with O'Brien (101).

Of the poets associated with the Bohemian period, Winter states that Arnold's name is one among a list of "names that shine, with more or less lustre, in the scroll of American poets, and recurrence to their period affords opportunity for correction of errors concerning it, which have been conspicuously made" (292).

Arnold was one of the few members of the Bohemian group that Winter claims Stedman was acquainted with. Arnold and Stedman met in childhood at "The Phalanx," at Strawberry Farms, New Jersey. Winter claims that among Stedman's poems there is "a tribute to the memory of that delightful comrade and charming poet" (293).

Arnold died at the age of thirty-one, in 1861. Winter published his poems with a memoir of Arnold. Winter reprints a letter that he received from Longfellow dated July 23, 1866, that discusses these poems on p.350.