Author Taylor Bayard

made to him on account of some journalistic work to be done in Europe, JB Taylor (as he had up to this time signed himself, though he bore no other Christian name than Bayard) set sail for the East. The young poet spent a happy time in roaming through certain districts of England, France, Germany and Italy; that he was a born traveler is evident from the fact that this pedestrian tour of almost two years cost him only £100. The graphic accounts which he sent from Europe to The New York Tribune, The Saturday Evening Post, and The United States Gazette were so highly appreciated that on Taylor's return to America he was advised to throw his articles into book form. In 1846, accordingly, appeared his Views Afoot, or Europe seen with Knapsack and Staff (2 vols, New York). This pleasant book had considerable popularity, and its author now found himself a recognized man of letters. He was asked to serve as an editorial assistant for Graham's Magazine for a few months in 1848.[4] That same year, Horace Greeley, then editor of the Tribune, placed Taylor on the Tribune staff thus securing Taylor a certain if a moderate income. His next journey, made when the gold-fever was at its height, was to California, as correspondent for the Tribune. From this expedition he returned by way of Mexico, and, seeing his opportunity, published (2 vols, New York, 1850) a highly successful book of travels, entitled El Dorado; or, Adventures in the Path of Empire. Ten thousand copies were said to have been sold in America, and thirty thousand in Great Britain, within a fortnight from the date of issue. Bayard Taylor always considered himself native to the East, and it was with great delight that in 1851 he found himself on the banks of the Nile, He ascended as far as 12' 30° N, and stored his memory with countless sights and delights, to many of which he afterwards gave expression in metrical form. From England, towards the end of 1852, he sailed for Calcutta, proceeding thence to China, where he joined the expedition of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry to Japan. The results of these journeys (besides his poetical memorials) were A Journey to Central Africa; or, Life and Landscapes from Egypt to the Negro Kingdoms of the White Nile (New York, 1854); The Lands of the Saracen; or, Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily and Spain (1854); and A Visit to India, China and Japan in the Year 1853 (1855). On his return (December 20, 1853) from these various journeyings he entered, with marked success, upon the career of a public lecturer, delivering addresses in every town of importance from Maine to Wisconsin. After two years experience of this lucrative profession, he again started on his travels, on this occasion for northern Europe, his special object being the study of Swedish life, language and literature. The most noteworthy result was the long narrative poem Lars, but his Swedish Letters to the Tribune were also republished, under the title Northern Travel: Summer and Winter Pictures (London, 1857). His first wife, May Agnew, died (1850) within a year of her marriage, and in October 1857 he married Maria Hansen, the daughter of Peter Hansen, the German astronomer. The ensuing winter was spent in Greece. In 1859 Taylor once more traversed the whole extent of the western American gold region, the primary cause of the journey lying in an invitation to lecture at San Francisco. About three years later he entered the diplomatic service as secretary of legation at St. Petersburg, and the following year (1863) became chargé d'affaires at the Russian capital. In 1864 he returned to the United States and resumed his active literary labors, and it was at this period that Hannah Thurston (New York, 1863), the first of his four novels, was published. This book had a moderate success, but neither in it nor in its successors did Bayard Taylor betray any special talent as a novelist. His late novel, Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania (New York, 1870), recounts an intimate friendship between two men and has been called America's first gay novel.[5][6] In 1874 he went to Iceland, to report for the Tribune the one thousandth anniversary of the first settlement there. In June 1878 he was accredited United States minister at Berlin. Notwithstanding the resistless passion for travel which had always possessed him, Bayard Taylor was (when not actually en route) sedentary in his habits, especially in the later years of his life. Only a few months after arriving in Berlin, Taylor died on December 19, 1878; his body was buried in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.[7] Shortly after his death, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a memorial poem to Taylor under the urging of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Cedarcroft, his home from 1859 to 1874, which he built himself near Kennett Square, is preserved as a National Historic Landmark. According to the 1911 edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica: