Old Friends; Being Literary Recollections of Other Days

Aldrich recalled that when he first met O'Brien, "he was trimming the wick of 'The Lantern,' the paper started by Brougham (76).

Winter mentions a letter he received from Aldrich in 1880 in which "Aldrich, in his serio-comic way, mentions facts about O'Brien that help to make more distinct the image of his erratic personality and the story of his wayward career."

Daly worked at The Courier while Briggs was in charge of it.

William Winter recalls that Sol Eytinge married Margaret in Brooklyn in June of 1858 with Henry Ward Beecher performing the service and Doestick (Mortimer Thomson) acting as groomsman (p. 318). Winter also mentions that "[h]is widow, who survives, in serene age, long ago made a name In letters, by reason of her exceptional humor and her expert invention, particularly as a writer for the young, and to think of her is to recall many a convivial occasion that her generous hospitality provided and that her kindness and her genial wit enriched (p. 319)."

According to Winter, Clapp began the Saturday Press with Howland.

Ludlow was a member of Taylor's poetic group, along with Richard Henry Stoddard, Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard, Edmund Clarence Stedman, George Henry Boker, Fitz-James O'Brien, Christopher P. Cranch, and George William Curtis.

Winter spells his name here as Henry Neill. Henry Neill and Frank Wood were "young journalists of fine ability," and "were frequently present" at Pfaff's. Winter continues, "both of them died in youth, with their promise unfulfilled" (65).

Winter mentions that during 1859-1860, Pfaff's basement resturant on Broadway was the meeting-place of Clapp and the Bohemians. "That genial being, long since gone the way of all mankind, had begun his business with a few kegs of beer and with the skill to make excellent coffee. Clapp, who subsisted chiefly on coffee and tobacco, had been so fortunate to discover the place soon after it opened. By him it was made known to others, and gradually it came to be the haunt of writers and artists, mostly young, and, though usually impecunious, opulent in their youth, enthusiasm, and ardent belief alike in a rosy present and a golden future. The place was roughly furnished, containing a few chairs and tables, a counter, a row of shelves, a clock, and some barrels. At the east end of it, beneath of the sidewalk of Broadway, there was a sort of cave, in which was a long table, and after Clapp had assumed the sceptre as Prince of Bohemia, that cave and that table were pre-empted by him and his votaries, at certain hours of the day and night, and no stranger ventured to intrude into the magic realm" (63-64).

He is listed by Winter as one of the Bohemians who frequented Pfaff's Cave (88).

Winter comments on Shanly's talent: "His poems called 'The Briar Wood Pipe' and 'Rifleman, Shoot Me a Fancy Shot' ought to long preserve his memory, and perhaps they will. To him it was a matter of indifference. I have never known a writer who was so abolutely careless of literary reputation: indeed, it was not until we had been acquainted for several months that I learned that he had written anything" (94-95).

Winter claims that Shanly never discussed his writings with him until Shanly was preparing to leave New York for Florida in 1875. During this conversation, Shanly asked Winter to be his "literary executor" in the event a publisher ever wanted to publish his works. Shanly died in Florida, April 14, 1875 (95).

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).

Of the poets associated with the Bohemian period, Winter states that Shanly'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).

C.D. Shanly is listed as one of the "friendly contributors" to the "Saturday Press," who "were glad to furnish articles for nothing, being friendly toward the establishment of an absolutely independent critical paper, a thing practically unknown in those days" (294-295).

Winter notes that Stoddard jokingly called T.B. Aldrich "Two-Baby Aldrich" after his twin sons were born (139).

In discussing the composition habits of some poets, Winter reports: "Richard Henry Stoddard,--whose 'Songs of Summer' comprise some of the loveliest and some of, apparently the most spontaneous lyrics existant in the English language,--told me that sometimes he wrote the first draft of the poem in prose, and afterward turned it into verse" (155-156).

In a letter to Winter, Taylor writes that he and his wife have had "a strange fancy that something has happened to Stoddard, Elizabeth, or Lorry" and he hopes he is wrong (163).

Stoddard was a member of Taylor's poetic group, along with George William Curtis, Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard, Edmund Clarence Stedman, George Henry Boker, Fitz-James O'Brien, Christopher P. Cranch, and Fitz Hugh Ludlow. Winter notes that at the time of his writing "not one remains" of this group Winter also remarks that Taylor's writings "evince his strong affection for Boker and Stoddard." Winter met Bayard Taylor at Stoddard's home at the northeast corner of Fourth Avenue and Tenth Street in New York. Winter refers to Stoddard as "the most subtle and exquisite lyrical genius in our poetic literature since Poe" (177).

Winter notes that Stedman, Stoddard, Taylor, and Boker were not associated with Clapp, the Bohemians, or the group that gathered during the time of "The Saturday Press" and Pfaff's Cave. These men did not lead Bohemian lifestyles and were not sympathetic to the lifestyle (178).

Stoddard is mentioned as a member of the "poetic circle" that Stedman was a member of, "a circle distinct from that of the contemporary Bohemia, and not propitious to it." At that time, Stoddard "held an official post" at the New York Custom House and often contributed to various publications, including "The Saturday Press." Winter states that Stoddard had made the acquaintance of Clapp, which helped him to occasionally publish in the "Press." Winter remembers that Stoddard had difficulty "obtaining payment" for his submissions (293).
Winter recalls an time when he and Clapp were sitting behind locked doors at the "Saturday Press" in order to avoid creditors and Stoddard came knocking. Winter recollects that he and Clapp were discussing finances: "when suddenly there came a loud, impatient knocking upon the outer door, and my senior, by a warning gesture, enjoined silence. The sound of a grumbiling voice was then audible, and, after a while, the sound of footsteps retreating down the stairs. For several minutes Clapp did not speak but continued to smoke and listen, looking at me with a serious aspect. Then, removing the pipe from his lips, he softly murmured, ''Twas the voice of the Stoddard--I heard him complain!'" Winter states that "That incident sufficiently indicates the embarassing circumstances under which the paper struggled through the twenty-six months of its existence" (294).

Winter also notes that while Taylor, Stoddard, Stedman, Boker, Curtis, Ludlow, and the names of have been "comingled wtih those of Clapp's Bohemian associates," they "were not only not affiliated with that coterie but were distinct from it, and, in some instances, were inimical to it" (295). Winter also notes that both Taylor and Stoddard were friends with O'Brien, but their friendship did not last. According to Winter, "the most censorious review" of Winter's collection of O'Brien's work - Poems and Stories - in 1881, appeared in "The New York Tribune" and was written by Stoddard (295).

In his keynote address for the celebration of Stedman's "An American Anthology," Winter remarked that "...our poetic literature will never, as a whole, acquire the opulent vitality, bloom, and color of old English poetry, until our authors cease to be self-conscious and critical, and ,--as that rare poet Richard Henry Stoddard so often and so happily has done,--yield themselves fully to their emotions" (305).

In 1856, Laura Keene produced and acted in Wilkins's Young New York.

Winter writes about Congdon briefly in his book, noting how his journalistic career began modestly at the Atlantis before he wrote for the esteemed Tribune.