Bayard Taylor Talk at Intercollegiate Studies Institute

Draft Text

December 16th, 2024

Bayard Taylor Draft Text

December 12, 2024

Intercollegiate Studies Institute

3901 Centerville Rd. Wilmington, DE 19807

Intercollegiate Studies Institute Christmas Open House & Lecture 

Poet, Diplomat, Travel Writer: The Life & Work of Kennett Square’s Bayard Taylor

 Good evening. I thank John Burtka and the staff of Intercollegiate Studies Institute for inviting me to speak this evening on Bayard Taylor. And I especially thank all of you for attending. This is an honor for me.

 This talk is designed to give you some information on Taylor. If this talk was presented in the mid-19th century in this area, especially nearby Kennett Square, I would not have to give much background on Taylor. Taylor was a celebrity of not only this area but of the world.

 It’s too bad we have allowed Taylor to be lost to the world. His hometown of Kennett Square is now known for mushrooms, the Mushroom Capitol of the United States, home to a two-day mushroom festival and, of course, the New Year’s Eve Mushroom drop, akin to the Times Square, New York, Apple celebration. I’m sure you all will brave the weather at the end of this month to observe the mushroom spectacle.

 What about one of the town’s most famous residents, Bayard Taylor? Well, the town’s library used to be known as the Bayard Taylor Memorial Library. They had a great library card with Taylor’s photo displayed. I joined that library some years ago so I could get a card. I have it, in case anyone wants to see it later. Well, recently Kennett Square modernized that library and changed its name to the Kennett Square Library. Not sexy at all, but the powers to be believed no one would know where the library was located if retained the Bayard Taylor moniker.

 If you detect I wasn’t in agreement with the name change, you would be correct. I didn’t get a vote.

 Taylor might not be a household celebrity but you might have heard of the following persons:

 Horace Greeley

Thoreau

Abraham Lincoln

Mark Twain

Edgar Allen Poe

Commodore Perry

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Ralph Waldo Emerson

John Greenleaf Whitter

Nathaniel Hawthorne

 Bayard Taylor had interactions with them all.

 One of my first experiences with writings by Taylor came when I was researching my book on the battle of Brandywine, titled September 11, 1777.  It was the first in-depth look at the Revolutionary War battle that took place fairly close to where we are tonight. One of Taylor’s first works, he was a teenager, aged 15, was titled “A Visit to the Battle Ground of Brandywine.” He began his essay by saying he “long desired” to see this place, celebrated in the annals of our revolution. He followed with a lively description of the battle. I couldn’t resist publishing Taylor’s essay and my publisher agreed. He wrote the article on April 5, 1840, with a dateline of Unionville. His prose was worthy of a writer twice his age.

 If you do a quick internet search on Bayard Taylor, you will be informed that Taylor was an American poet, literary critic, translator, travel author, and diplomat. As a poet, he was very popular. A crowd of more than 4,000 attended one of his poetry reading, which was a record that stood for 85 years. His travelogues were popular in both the United States and Great Britain.

 An audience of 4,000! John you would have had to have a larger venue if Taylor was here in person.

 Let’s get the basics out of the way: He was born in Kennett Square on January 11, 1825, to Quaker parents Joseph and Rebecca Way Taylor.  Taylor was married twice. His first wife, Mary Agnew, died soon after their marriage. His marriage to Marie Hansen produced a daughter, Lillian Bayard Taylor Kiliani. He died on December 19, 1878, he was just 53 years old, in Berlin, Germany. He is buried in the Longwood Cemetery, just outside the gates of Longwood Gardens.

Bayard Taylor was named in honor of the esteemed Delaware senator James A. Bayard. According to information from the Kennett Square library, Bayard’s mother had taught him to read at age four, and early in his life, he found his real refuge in books, never tiring of reading poetry and books about the countries he longed to visit.

 Taylor’s true love seemed to be poetry. He began corresponding with Rufus Griswold, an editor, who encourage him to publish a collection of his early poems. He did so in 1844, at the age of 19. The accomplishment is impressive for one so young.

 Another accomplishment for the young man was fulfilling his desire to be a globe trotter. He took advantage of an opportunity to travel to Europe with a relative and another man. How did Taylor finance his trip? He entered into agreements with publications, including the Saturday Evening Post, to write articles about his European travels. He landed in Liverpool, England and spent the next two years visiting cities in England, Germany and Italy.

 Taylor was very frugal, he subsisted on about six cents a day, according to letters he wrote home. Anyone think they can travel today on 6 cents a day? Can you get anything for 6 cents today?

His career as an international travel writer was launched!

Upon returning to Kennett Square, Taylor was encouraged to gather his writings into a book and did so – Views A-Foot. The book was so popular, it went through 24 editions in 13 years! Taylor was the James Patterson of his era.

Taylor aimed to marry his childhood sweetheart, Mary Agnew, but he needed money to support her and tried his hand a newspapers and eventually went to New York City where he worked for the New York Tribune and met Horace Greeley. Greeley urged Taylor to help another young writer, Thoreau, who lived in a shanty at Walden Pond.  Greeley purchased a Thoreau manuscript for $75. For his own part, Taylor continued writing and published a book which received praise from Edger Allan Poe. His work for the Tribune continued and he traveled to San Francisco to cover the gold rush. His adventures to another successful book – Eldorado.

When Taylor returned he did marry Mary Agnew but her health was poor. She died two months after the wedding. After Mary’s death and a period of mourning, he decided on another foreign trip. Egypt and the Middle East were among his stops and then he went to the Far East and again wrote for the Tribune. In 1853, he received an appointment as master’s mate in the United States Navy in order to travel to Japan with Commodore Perry on the U.S.S. Mississippi. This trip resulted in the publication of A Visit to India, China and Japan, in the Year 1853.

The Far East trip led to a number of invitations to lecture and he did so. But he was soon off on another adventure, including stops in Sweden and the Artic – where one day the temperature was recorded as minus-47.  This is the trip where he met Alfred Lord Tennyson in England. Another book was published in 1857. He met another important person his life during that trip – his future wife, Marie Hansen. She was a niece of a friend from Germany. They married October 1, 1858. They next year the couple became parents of a daughter, Lillian, and they returned to the United States.

Back at Kennett Square, he built a country estate just north of Kennett Square and called it Cedarcroft. Those attending a dedication ceremony in 1860 were Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Greenleaf Whitter, Horace Greeley and others.

Taylor entered government work and was chargé d’affaires of the Russian legation in St. Petersburg. This was the time of the American Civil War. Taylor’s brother Charles was in the Union Army and was killed on July 2, 1863, during the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Upon returning to the United States, President Abraham Lincoln attended one of Taylor’s lectures on Russia and was impressed. Lincoln wrote Taylor a letter and later Bayard published Ballard of Abraham Lincoln.

During the next part of his life he began writing novels to go with his poetry. One was the Story of Kennett. One of his works brought praise from Nathaniel Hawthorne. As Taylor curtailed his traveling and lecturing and concentrated on his writing. His work translating Faust brought him a position with Cornell University. His final novel was published in 1870.

Taylor decided to move his home to New York City and sold Cedarcroft. He did return once to Kennett Square before his final voyage to Germany in 1878. A passenger on the ship he met was Mark Twain. Unfortunately, Taylor became ill during the trip and never fully recovered. He was diagnosed with a liver condition. On December 18, 1878, he died.