Winter, William (1836-1917)

In his 1865 tribute to Fitz-James O'Brien ("O'Brien's Personal Characteristics"), George Arnold mentions that Will Winter visited him to tell him of the loss of another friend, Ned Wilkins.

The author cites Winter as an assistant co-editor of The Saturday Press.

Browne states that Winter "came here from Boston, after graduating Harvard, because he believed New York offered the best field for writers." Winter contributed to the Saturday Press and other weekly papers (153). Winter also "composed many clever poems, and did whatever literary work he could find at hand; supporting himself comfortably by his pen, and gaining a considerable reputation, particularly as a poet" (153-4).

Browne mentions that "A few years ago he married a literary woman and has not since been much of a Bohemian; for Hymen is an enemy to the character, and domesticity its ultimate destroyer." Browne notes that Winter was, at the time of his writing, the dramatic critic at the Tribune and "a very hard worker; deeming it a duty to perform whatever labor comes to him without seeking" (154).

Clare expresses her dislike of Winter's "Song of the Ruined Man" (2).

The author describes Winter as one of Henry Clapp's associates at Pfaff's when it was "a famous resort back in the fifties."

Identified by Eytinge, along with his wife Lizzie Campbell, as part of the "group of men and women, all of whom had distinguished themselves in various avenues, — in literature, art, music, drama, war, philanthropy" who met at Ada Clare's house on West 42nd Street in New York on Sunday evenings (21-2). Eytinge describes Winter and Campbell as "then boy and girl, bridegroom and bride" (21-2).

Winter is mentioned as one of the people Eytinge met at Bulfinch Place, or "the actors' Mecca," in Boston (57, 60).

Figaro quotes "Willie Winter's" review of Pizarro, which he also did not see (57).

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

Winter is mentioned as one of "the best know writers who frequented that cozy corner [Pfaff's]." Winter is also credited with contributing towards a granite monument for Clapp's grave site and with writing the inscription and epitaph for the monument itself.

The author describes Winter as a member of Aldrich's "nearer circle of contemporaries" during his experience in the "Literary Bohemia" in New York (38).

Greenslet notes, "The three young men of the group that with Aldrich surivived the century, Stedman, Stoddard, and Mr. Winter, writers all of poetry and prose, have become familiar names. It is perhaps something more than a coincidence that all four were New England Boys" (38-39).

Greenslet reprints a June 12, 1893, letter from Aldrich to Winter ("Will") from Ponkapog, Mass., that remarks upon Booth's death and funeral. Aldrich remarks that he quoted Hamlet ("Goodnight sweet prince") to himself as Booth was laid to rest. Aldrich tells Winter that at the funeral, "Then I thought of the years and years that had been made rich with his presence, and of the years that were to come, -- for us, not many, surely, -- and if there had not been a crowd of people, I would have buried my face in the greensward and wept, as men may not do and women may. And thus we left him" (174). Aldrich closes the letter to Winter by saying, "Some day, when I come to New York, we must get together in a corner at the Players, and talk about him -- his sorrows and his genius and his gentle soul" (175). (This letter is reprinted from Winter's The Life and Art of Edwin Booth.)

Aldrich discusses being quoted in Winter's book in a letter to Laurence Hutton dated Oct. 31, 1893, from Ponkaog (176).

Greenslet reprints some of Aldrich's letters to Winter pp. 29-30, 174-5

Winter is mentioned in a newspaper clipping regarding the staff of the Saturday Press .

Hamilton mentions Winter's description of the beauty of the woman over whom North committed suicide, Genevieve Genevra Fairfield.

Winter is described as a "sometime visitor" at Pfaff's; "another lounger at Pfaff's whose name has become famous in the world of letters" (218).

Hemstreet mentions that Winter has his "den" in the Tribune building (234).

The obituary identifies him as one of the "Knights of the Round Table" of the "lions of Bohemia."

According to Lalor, Winter "felt an overt antipathy toward Whitman and Whitman reciprocated the rancor. Neither party ever outlined reasons for his feelings, but Winter's abiding faith in all things romantic and Whitman's grandiose self-esteem may have been the causes for the other's attitude" (135). Lalor cites the publication of a parody of Whitman's style by "little Willie" Winter as an example of Whitman's probable lack of control over what was published about him or Leaves of Grass in the Saturday Press. Lalor writes that Whitman "detested" Winter and "certainly would not have endorsed [his work] for publication" (141).

The author mentions Winter as a member of the "'Pfaff group,' which assisted in the publication of the Saturday Press.

Winter was a drama critic, poet, and sometime editor of the Saturday Press who revealed "the spectacular design of the Bohemian's self staging" in his memoirs (19).

Levin describes him as "a drama critic, poet, and sometime editor of The Saturday Press. Levin notes that Winter's memoirs display the "spectacular design of the Bohemian's self-staging," "highlighting Bohemia's complicated position within the American marketplace." Levin quotes Winter's description of Pfaff's from Old Friends (19-20). Levin also discusses Winter's mentions of the ill-pay of the Bohemian writers and the "Romantic myth" that they "strove to embody" (20).

Levin cites his discussion of Bostonians.

Discusses the hardship of being a writer in the 1850s in his book, Old Friends; Being Literally Recollections of Other Days (13-14). Winter was a regular at Pfaff's (16). He hoined the Pfaffians as a twenty-three-year-old struggling poet and journalist. Winter was soon taken in by Clapp who "regarded him as a protégé" (70). By December 1859, Winter was accepted by most Pfaffians, with the notable exception of Walt Whitman who "found his friendship and talents distasteful" (70).

It is possible that Winter shared the position of dramatic critic for the Saturday Press with Clapp in 1860, after Wilkins left the newspaper (29). Winter wrote for the Saturday Press and eventually became "the most famous and influential critic of the nineteenth-century American stage" (71).

After the Civil War several Pfaffians, including "William Winter and Thomas Bailey Aldrich turned their backs upon Bohemianism and embraced standards of taste we call 'The Genteel Tradition'" (17).

Winter also helped organize the funeral of Henry Clapp, Jr. and wrote an epitaph that was never used (40).

William Winter was born on July 15, 1836, in Gloucester, Mass. He graduated from Cambridge High School at age sixteen and started law school at Harvard in 1856. He supported himself by working as a "collector for a tugboat in Boston Harbor, and from his literary efforts" (71). He graduated in 1857 and went to work for the Manson and Parker law firm, but he never tried a case (72). Winter dabbled in politics in 1856; opposed slavery but also "opposed radical behavior more and wrote with distaste about the 'effusive, hysterical novel of Uncle Tom's Cabin' which 'aroused and inflamed thousands of hearts'" (71). He disagreed with the practise of slavery, but he never supported the abolitionist movement (71).

Winter was greatly influenced by a twenty-eight year friendship with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which began in 1854 after Winter dedicated a volume of poetry to Longfellow (72).

Winter met T. B. Aldrich in 1855 after reviewing The Bells: A Collection of Chimes (73). He met Fitz-James O'Brien in 1859 and quickly formed a friendship with him: "Winter admired his frankness; the two men because friends and remained so until O'Brien was killed fighting in the North in 1862" (73). Winter met Clapp in 1858, and officially moved from Boston to New York City in 1859 (74). "From early January to December 15, 1860, Winter worked as assistant editor and book reviewer for the Saturday Press" (75). Clapp praised Winter's poetry but others, like Ada Clare, did not always enjoy it (75).

Winter met Scottish writer Lizzie (Elizabeth) Campbell in 1859 and married her on December 8, 1860 (76). In 1861, Winter visited his pregnant wife in Toronto, while rooming with Ada Clare. Percy Winter was born on November 16, 1861 (78). The family was forced to leave Clare's home after the loss of her South Carolina property forced her to cut back on expenses (78). Winter's other children were as follows: Arthur (1872), Louis (1873), William Jefferson (1878), and Viola (1881) (79).

In a letter to Edmund Clarence Stedman, dated May 1, 1863, Winter describes his social isolation: "I am, as I ever was, something of a black sheep and none of our friends care to acknowledge me socially" (79).

During the Civil War, Winter found work with the Leader, the Petroleum Monitor, the New York Weekly Review, Round Table, Philobiblion, The Galaxy, Harper's Weekly and Spirit of the Times (79). Winter replaced Harry Neill (Inigo) at the Albion in 1861 (79). On July 13, 1865 Winter substituted for Edward H. House as a reviewer for Greeley's New York Tribune. One month later, Winter replaced House permanently (82).

Winter was known to use the pseudonym Mercutio (79). His choice of penname came from Winter's belief that "Shakespeare's Mercutio is the best type that literature affords of the brilliant men of the world [...] I fancy him, in brave attire walking about the streets of the old Italian city, or in comfortable inns, drinking wine with gay companions....He was always merry and he took the world easily, with laughter for everything. And yet there was a serious vein in his nature. He was a true friend. He was ardent, alike in his love and in his aversion. He had scholarship, at least in belles lettres; and he was, in his off-hand way, an excellent critic of manners and of character" (79-80).

Miller also includes Winter's comments on the assassination of President Lincoln (81).

Winter left behind the Bohemian ideology in favor of the "Genteel Tradition" (82).

Winter "regarded the theatre as a temple of art and not 'merely a workshop for shrewd and vulgar speculation in popular credulity'" (83). Central to Winter's criticism is the idea that "artists and writers seek excellence, not popular applause" (84). "Winter demanded that the theatre offer only an idealized view of life and shun unpleasant social and moral questions" (87).

The Plays of Henrik Ibsen "became the symbol for Winter of all that was wrong with the modern stage. He believed staunchly that 'the province of art is the ministry of beauty, and beauty, in art, is inseperable from morality'" (89).

"Winter judged harshly the personal character of Edwin Forrest in determining his worth as an actor. He thought the actor possessed great talent, manly beauty, and physical strength. He praised his hard work in the face of failure and disappointments [...] But Winter believed that weakness of character tainted his art" (92-93).
"Winter compared such acting to the poetry of Walt Whitman, where too much emphasis was placed on the flesh" (93-94). Edwin Booth was Winter's idea of a perfect performer (94).
The friendship between Augustin Daly and William Winter during the 1880s and 1890s caused people to question Winter's "critical integrity and earned him the nickname of 'Daly's house poet'" (96). William Winter was "New York's first and foremost critic"(98). His "'kindliness of nature' made it difficult for him to censure an actor or manager" (98).

Winter favored idealistic, romantic literature which put him in conflict with "the new realistic literature of the period" (85). He was accused of being a "moralist" (86). "He always denied such a charge, however, noting that modern audiences did not wish to deal with immoral questions in a truthful manner, but wanted to peer into bedrooms through the keyhole" (86).

Winter died on June 30, 1917; he was buried on Staten Island (101).

In his 1865 tribute to Fitz-James O'Brien ("O'Brien's Personal Characteristics"), George Arnold mentions that Will Winter visited him to tell him of the loss of another friend, Ned Wilkins.

Odell uses Winter as a source for citations, reviews, etc. Odell cites Winter's review of Jefferson's return to the stage in the lead role (Asa Trenchard) of Our American Cousin (139). Odell also reprints an excerpt from Winter's review in of Kate Reginolds as Donna Violante in The Wonder that originally appeared in The Tribune (158). Winter is cited about the performances of Polish actor Bogumil Dawison in Othello and Narciss (189-190).

Odell uses Winter's Shakespeare on the Stage as a source for citations and information. According to Odell, Winter's reviews of Wallack's in 1867-68 have become the cannonical understanding and estimation of the company for that year. Odell seems to agree with Winter's contemporary assessment of the company as well as corroborates it with other information (271).

Winter is credited with recording that Edwin Booth very much enjoyed G.L. Fox's comedic interpretation of Hamlet in the 1869-70 season (584). Winter is also cited for other cannonical criticisms of other landmark Hamlets.

He disputed Gayler's claim that O'Brien wrote Rosedale.

Parry calls Winter "the most virtuous of the Bohemians" and mentions that Winter wrote that the woman who North was rumored to have committed suicide over could "have inspired idolatrous passion in the breast of even a marble monument" (49).

Parry mentions that despite his "garrulous" nature and that he knew Ada Clare well and wrote in detail about the other Pfaffians, Winter "published nothing about her save a short obituary [in the Tribune] and a poem." Winter was also on the coroner's jury that investigated Clare's death (15-16). Parry reprints Winter's "Ada" and notes that as he "extolled her golden qualities" he also had to explain his relation to Clare because the poem was signed in his own name. Winter wrote of his relationship to Ada Clare: "A brother's place in that fond breast was mine to hold." Parry also mentions that Winter was pleased that Wilkie Collins wrote to him about how much he enjoyed his "Ada" (36).

Parry mentions that Winter noted that "in temperment and mentality Clapp was really more of a Frenchman than an American." Winter also compared Clapp to Voltaire, at least, in looks (24). Parry writes that in his later days, Clapp most likely had doubts about remaining alive and in the company of former "mediocre" Pfaffians such as Winter, "who tried to make the American theater very respectable" (47). Parry continues with a mention that in the 1870s and 1880s, when several Pfaffian's became "respectable," "Winter became important and made money writing sentimental nonsense about the theater for the Tribune" (61).

Parry mentions that Winter and Stedman were among the Pfaffians who disliked Whitman and did not enjoy his presence at the saloon. Parry cites Whitman's "gross bigotry" and Winter's dislike of Whitman's birthday toast of "That's the feller!" for Clapp (39). Despite this, Parry writes that during the promotion of Leaves of Grass in the Saturday Press, "Even Willy Winter made a turn-about in his smoldering enmity for Walt and published in the Saturday Press of October 20, 1860, a serious poem in the Whitmanian style. Perhaps Clapp, implacable to wavering adherents in his own camp, ordered Willy to prove, in this fashion, his allegiance to him and Walt" (40).

Quelqu'un discusses his lack of qualifications for being a Feuilletonist. He also mentions why he does not go to the theater often - he enjoys almost everything about it, except that he cannot pay attention beyond the third act. After this point, he usually falls asleep or goes to the "refreshment room" to drink bad liquor. Quelqu'un contrasts Personne's approach to the theater to his own (3).

Stansell looks to Winter as a source about Pfaff's and writes: "Winter described a caustic collective style articulated through verbal facility, mockery and male bravado:

'Candor of judgment, indeed, relative to literary product was the inveterate custom of that Bohemian group. Unmerciful chaff pursued te perpetrator of any piece of writing that impressed those persons as trite, conventional, artificial, laboriously solemn, or insincere; and they never spared each other from the barb of ridicule. It was a salutary experience for young writers, because it habituated them to the custom not only of speaking the truth, as they understood it, about the writings of their associates, but of hearing the truth, as others understood it, about thier own productions'" (117).

Stansell also quotes Winter's description of Clapp p.120. In discussing the literary life in New York in the 1850s, Stansell quotes Winter: "a harder time for writers has not been known in our country than the time that immediately preceeded the outbreak of the Civil War" and notes that he uses the life stories of several Pfaff's regulars to illustrate this point (121).

"It is a striking fact that the number of young men prominently connected with the New York press as writers is greater now than at any former period...the chief editorial work in these journals is done by men between the years of twenty-five and forty" (4).

"Then, too, in the same office, are Clarence Cook, waging war against all bad pictures and some good; Edwin H. House and William Winter, dramatic critics; Nathan Urner and Kane O'Donnel, comparatively new arrivals in Gotham..." (4).
"It is a striking fact that the number of young men prominently connected with the New York press as writers is greater now than at any former period...the chief editorial work in these journals is done by men between the years of twenty-five and forty" (4).

Winter was the literary critic for Clapp's weekly [Saturday] Press.

"Winter is considered not only one of the best dramatic writers in the country, but one of the sweetest poets-one of the few poets who know what poetry is and can write it" (168).

Whitman notes that Henry Clapp expressed contempt for William Winter.

Appleton lists Winter as a chief contributor to his publication

The book is dedicated to William Winter, "Poet, Scholar, and Kindly-Hearted Gentleman 'Far distant be the day that takes him from us!'" (5).

The entire book is Winter's recollections of the people and places he met and visited.

Winter was born in 1836 (the same year as Aldrich), in July, and "entered on the literary life" in 1854 (the same year as Aldrich). Both Winter and Aldrich published their first books that year, Winter in Boston, and Aldrich in New York (133). Winter began his newspaper career at "The Boston Transcript" in 1854, "with the occasional writing of miscellaneous articles,--book notices, etc.," under the editor Daniel N. Haskell, who encouraged Winter's writing and introduced him to Aldrich (134).

Winter studied under Professor Theophilius Parsons as a student at the Dane School of Law at Harvard College. Winter recalls the following conference with Parsons: "'I am sorry,' he said, 'to observe that you are turning your attention to Literature. I have seen your poems in the newspapers. Don't think of living by your pen. Stick to the Law! You will be an excellent lawyer. You will have a profession to depend on. You can make your way. You can have home and friends. Stick to the Law. I once knew a brilliant young man--Paine was his name--who started much as you have done. He might have had a prosperous and happy life. He had much ability. But he left the Law. He took to writing. They had him here and there and everywhere, with his poems. He was convivial; he wasted his talents; and he sank into an early and rather a dishonored grave. Don't make a mistake at the beginning. Stick to the Law, and the Law will reward you'" (79-80).

Winter quotes a "Notes and Queries" by John C. Francis that, in remembering Longfellow, remarks on the "magnetism" that drew others to him. Francis mentions in his column that "William Winter, who had been greeted by him as a young aspirant in literature, would walk miles to Longfellow's house, only to put his hand upon the latch of the gate which the poet himself had touched." Of his "homage," Winter writes, "This act of homage was done in my youth; but, old as I am, the feeling that prompted it has not yet died out of my heart" (49-50).

Winter moved from Boston to New York in 1859-'60. Winter writes: "The nation, at that time, was trembling on the verge of Civil War. New York was seething with indescribable excitement, and a fever of expectancy was everywhere visible" (136). According to Winter, the theaters and newspapers were less numerous, and the press had specific political leanings (136). Winter remembers that his association with Clapp and "The Saturday Press" began when he contributed some poems to the paper, including his "Orgia." Clapp soon after employed him as a reviewer and sub-editor; "and so begun my Bohemian life: impercunious, but interesting; impoverished, but delightful; burdened with labor and hardship, but careless and happy,--happier than any other life has been since or will be again. No literary circle comparable with the Bohemian group of that period, in ardor of genius, variety of character, and singularity of achievement has since existed in New York, nor has any group of writers anywhere existant in our country been so ignorantly and grossly misrepresented and maligned" (137-138).

Winter writes of his early days as a writer: "Experience was to teach me what counsel failed to teach. A harder time for writers has not been known in our country than the time that immediately preceded the outbreak of the Civil War; yet that was a time when the sun shone bright on the fields of Bohemia, and the roses were in bloom: a tiem of frequent hardship, sometimes of actual want: I learned then what it is to lack a lodging, and how it feels to be compelled to walk all night in the streets of a great city, alone, hungry, and cold: not a time of continuous, unalloyed comfort, and almost always a time of careless mirth. It did not last long. By the stroke of death and the vicissitude of fortune the circle of my early artistic circle was broken in 1861, after which year, our favorite haunt, Pfaff's Cave, was gradually deserted by the votaries of the quill and brush, and the day of dreams was ended" (82).

Winter recounts the story of the composition of O'Brien's "The Sewing Bird" at his "lodgings" over a period of two nights and one day (70).

Winter lists himself as one of the Bohemians who frequented Pfaff's Cave (88).

Winter mentions that "not one of my old comrades of 1850-'60 is living now, and, for the most part, the mention of their names would mean nothing to the present generation of readers. Yet it is a fact within the experience of every close observer of his time that men and women of extraordinary ability and charm pass across the scene and vanish from it, leaving a potent impression of character, of mind, and even of genius, yet leaving no endurable evidence of their exceptional worth. Such persons, of whom the world hears nothing, are, sometimes, more interesting than some persons,--writers and the like,--of whom the world hears much" (83).

Winter and Taylor were almost across-the-street neighbors on East Eigthteenth Street in New York and both were working at the "Tribune" when Taylor was asked to give read a poem at the Centennial Celebration on the Fourth of July and to read at the annual reunion of the Society of the Army of the Potomac in June 1876. Taylor had trouble focusing on writing his Ode for the Centennial Celebration and asked Winter to take over the poetic responsibilities involved at the reunion of the Society of the Army of the Potomac (168). Winter delivered his poem, "The Voice of the Silence" at the Philadelphia Academy of Music. Of this poem and the event of its reading, Winter writes, "its intention being to indicate the admonitions that proceed out of the tranquility of Nature, in places, now silent and peaceful, that have been tumultuous and horrible with strife, and, incidentally, to declare that there is active spiritual impartment in the seeming quiescent physical world. The scene, as I recall it, presented a superb pageant of life and color" (170). Winter also recalls meeting Generals Hancock and Sherman, and his experiences of reviewing the program with the two men and making small talk before the event. Winter also discusses his delivery to the audience (171-172).

Winter also discusses that during the political tensions and debates of the 1850s that preceded the Civil War, he was a follower of the Pathfinder and a speaker for him (240).