North, William (1825-1854)

Arnold refutes charges the O'Brien's short story "The Diamond Lens" was plagiarized from North's manuscripts.

Cites William North as contributing to the first issue of Putnam's. Describes North as "a wild, impulsive creature, frank, generous, impatient of restraint, full of brilliant projects, hating routine, and bent on reforming mankind on the instant." Mentions that he published North's Magazine while in London. Claims that North and Fitz-James O'Brien arrived in New York in the same week (2).

Clapp quotes North's remarks from a few years prior about the Maine Liquor Law in New York (4).

In addition to reporting his death, this short article states that "Mr. North was perhaps more widely known than any other writer connected with the periodical literature of America or England."

Edwards lists North among his English and American friends in Paris, asserting that North came to Paris after Lamartine praised the Englishman's translation of his Méditations Poétiques. Edwards also describes North's subsequent literary endeavours in the United states, stating that "he was at first well received, and invited to contribute to different periodicals. But he could not write to order; he was unable to fall in with the ways of editors, and his work was sometimes too original for ordinary publications." He cites the strange plot of North's novel The City of the Jugglers as an example of the author's eccentricity and recounts North's assertion that if only one copy had been sold, its merit would have been recognized. Edwards also discusses North's suicidal tendencies, describing an incident in which North first admitted he had tried to kill himself the previous night with laudanum and then feigned stabbing himself in the heart with a knife.

North's friendship with Henry Clapp, beginning in England, is recounted here.

Hillyer recounts that, after arriving in the United States, North "became identified with the literati of New York City and joined the ranks of bohemianism, just then beginning to form in the metropolis." He further states that "[a]lthough North wrote considerably and well, success did not crown his work to the extent of his ambition. The consequent effect upon his temparment was morbidly depressive." Of North's posthumously published Slave of the Lamp, Hillyer writes that "his sad death lent a morbid interest to it," but concludes that "[t]hough read by many at the time of its publication, it is now known only to the literary student, and it has sunk into the same oblivion that has engulfed the fame of its writer."

A "'man of eccentric vision, physical and mental'" North chose not to follow his father's career in law. With no monetary help from his parents, North took small literary jobs, and became Henry Clapp's "'chum'" in London (12).

North's colleagues said that he was "'full of brilliant projects, hating routine, and bent on reforming mankind on the instant'" (48).

Seymour claims that North read him a story entitled Micro-Cosmos with a plot very similar to O'Brien's Diamond Lens.

This obituary comments on the dramatic nature of North's death, stating that "[a] more determined and deliberate suicide has never been committed." The article states that, during his two years in the United States, "he has written several large volumes of tales, essays and poetry -- all of which have appeared in the leading magazines and periodicals and been extensively copied."

O'Brien reminisces about "[p]oor North, the Republican philosopher, who hoped so much when he sought this country, and who came to so melancholy an end after he had tried it."

Parry claims that North's suicide started the Bohmian movement (49).

Parry also notes that Clapp "whispered" to others during this time that North could not stay in a room with the doors open, yet when his body was found in his rooms on Bond Street the doors were open. According to Parry, "It appealed to the contemporary imagination that North was an Englishman, born at sea of a distinguished family, and that his body was to be shipped from New York to his far-off island home. The prissy William Winter, the most virtuous of all the Bohemians, said that the woman of the dead brother's despair was so beautiful that she could 'have inspired idolatrous passion in the breast of even a marble monument'" (49).

Parry mentions that North was the "first enemy" Fitz-James O'Brien made in America (52). Of the "frequent" charges of plagiarism made against the Pfaffians, "the first and most notable" was made against Fitz-James O'Brien and the "Diamond Lens." The accusation was that O'Brien had taken the story from North's papers when North committed suicide. "The idea of the 'Lens' was identical with that of North's unpublished 'Microcosmus,' which story was known to a few friends but was never found in any magazine office or among North's possessions. Even if not true, this charge is indicative of the state of mind of the first Bohemia" (55-56).

Thomas Picton asserts that William North was particularly proud of two of his works: The Living Corpse and the unpublished Microcosmos.

Rossetti describes North as "a pale, rather fleshy young man, with bright eyes, a slightly high clear voice, and very pallid straight hair of yellowish twinge." He depicts North as a "strange character" whose "shifts were numerous -- assuredly more numerous than his shirts." Rossetti states that when North left London for the United States, "at some such date as 1853," he left two women there "with some claim upon him" and that these women were the inspiration for North's poems Blondine and Brunetta. Rossetti recounts that in New York, "North made a not incosiderable impression by his tales and other writings." However, he attributes North's suicide to the fact that "money refused to be forthcoming."

A regular in the bohemian circle at Pfaff's.

Winter recalls that after O'Brien's "The Diamond Lens" was published, "a groundless, foolish fable was set afloat" that alleged that O'Brien had taken the story from one of North's manuscripts. Winter states that "the fact being that it ['The Diamond Lens'] was prompted by a remark made to him [O'Brien] by Dr. A.L Carroll (he who, for a short time in 1865, published a comic paper called 'Mrs. Grundy'), relative to the marvellous things contained in a drop of water" (67-68).

North wrote the novel "The Man of the World," originally titled "The Slave of the Lamp." North and O'Brien had been friends, but that had had a falling-out, and in this novel North created a character named "Fitz-Gammon O'Bouncer," which "described and satirized his former friend" (68).

On November 13, 1854, "disappointment in love, and everything else, being the cause of his deplorable act," North committed suicide by drinking prussic acid at No. 7 Bond Street, New York. He was about twenty-eight years old. North was originally from England and was "a scion of the Guilford family." Winter notes that "both in London and New York, he had worked incessantly with his pen,--writing stories in such magazines as the old 'Graham's' and 'The Knickerbocker,' and contributing in various ways to the press." At the time of his death, "An envolope was found on his desk, containing twelve cents, with a few written words, stating that to be the fruit of his life's labor" (68).

Winter reprints a letter from Seymour to Bellew that discusses North's suicide, dated November 17, 1854. Seymour writes:
Dear Bellew:

You are long ere acquainted with the melancholy death of our poor friend North's career. He left a letter for you, which has been forwarded. Other particulars of the event were published in the "Daily Times" and other papers. The cause of death was love, not poverty. He impressed that on me, the night before the catastrophe. I little thought the threat he uttered then,--as he had done many times before,--would so surely be carried into execution.

It is to me, and it will be to you, a source of inexpressible consolation that we, at least, of all his friends, understood, appreciated, and loved him to the last. To the time of his death I valued him as a brother, and cannot recall an angry word that ever passed his lips or mine. Poor fellow; my heart bleeds when I think of his sad, sad end.

I wish to relieve you on one point where you will, I am sure, experience uneasiness. Everything that propriety and love demanded has been done. The corpse now lies in the vault of Greenwood Cemetery. I have not interred it, because I thought it necessary to write to England, to consult North's relations, before doing so. I ask nothing from them, only the privilege of honoring my poor friend's remains here, if they do not wish them there.

A great amount of sympathy has been elicited by the event, but I have not permitted it to interfere with my action in the matter. Excepting myself and Underhill, there was no other friend here from whom North would have accepted a favor. I have not allowed any one to offend his memory by offering his assistance now. Underhill insisted, and he alone participated.

I have ninety days privilege of the vault. If I do not hear from England in that time, I shall purchase a plot of ground, and suitably mark the spot where lies a man of genius, a gentleman, and a kind, brave, well loved friend.

With wishes for your happiness,
I am, dear Bellew,
Yours in sorrow,
C. Seymour. (313-314)

Winter reports that it has been over fifty years since North has died. Winter remarks that North was "Not widely known in his own time, he is not at all known now: yet his writings, notwithstanding indications of a visionary, unstable brain, possess poetical enthusiasm and are a part of literature, while his personal story has a place in literary annals. Under the name of Dudley Mondel, he has, to some extent, sketched himself, in his novel called "The Slave of the Lamp,"--existant now, though long out of print, as "The Man of the World." According to Winter, North's given personal history states that he was born at sea and eduated partly in England and partly in Germany. North's boyhood novel was titled "Anti-Coningsby" and was written "for the purpose of controverting the political views of the then young Disraeli." According to Winter, North came to New York at about the age of twenty-five and "wrote industriously for 'Graham's Magazine,' 'Harper's Magazine,' 'The Knickerbocker Magazine,' 'The Whig Review,' and other periodical publications." Winter lists some of North's stories: "The Phantom World," "The Usurer's Gift," "My Ghost," and "The Man that Married His Grandmother." Winter claims that "North's fantastic, almost delirious 'Slave of the Lamp' is not for a moment comperable with 'Treasure Island,' but it contains a remote premonition of that remarkable tale, in its account of a voyage to an auriferous isle, somewhere in the Antarctic zone, on which the adventurous Dudley Mondel, the hero of the novel, and his singularly miscellaneous companions found much gold, and on which, deep in the crater of a vast conical mountain, they discovered a broad lake of quicksilver, into which one of the group fell and was converted into a statue, reposing on the surface of the lake" (314-315).

About the woman believed to be the cause of North's suicide, Winter states: "The woman for hopeless love of whom North committed suicide was, in after years, known to me, and certainly she was beautiful enough to have inspired idolatrous passion in the breast of a marble monument" (315).

In a discussion of William North, Winter calls upon information he received from Clapp: "Henry Clapp, who knew him well, told me that it was one of North's peculiarities that, in whatever room he chanced to be, at night, he could not bear to have the door stand open, even an inch: yet the door of the room in which he died was found to be standing ajar by persons who, at morning, discovered the corpse" (316-317).

Winter also reprints the letter North wrote to Bellew. The letter, written in blue ink and addressed to F.T. Bellew and Mrs. Bellew read:

Dear Friends:--May you be happy! Do not regret me. I am not fit for this world. I fly to a better life. I am calm and brave and hopeful.

Ever affectionately and truly,
W. North. (317)