Old Friends; Being Literary Recollections of Other Days

Winter claims that Clapp did not like Aldrich.

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).

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.

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.