Robert Montgomery Bird - Wikipedia Robert Montgomery Bird From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Robert Montgomery Bird Born February 5, 1806 New Castle, Delaware, US Died January 23, 1854(1854-01-23) (aged 47) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US Resting place Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Occupation Novelist, playwright, physician Nationality American Signature Robert Montgomery Bird (February 5, 1806 – January 23, 1854) was an American novelist, playwright, and physician.[1] Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Notes 4 References 5 External links Early life and education[edit] Bird was born in New Castle, Delaware on February 5, 1806.[2] He was born into a pioneer family. His father was a prosperous partner in the firm of Bird and Riddle, Navy agents. Following the death of his father when Bird was four years old, his mother and brothers moved to Philadelphia, but he was taken in by a rich uncle, Nicholas Van Dyke, in New Castle. Bird then attended New Castle Academy, where he was encouraged to develop his musical skills. He later wrote that his school years were not pleasant. After attending the New Castle Academy and Germantown Academy, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1824.[3] Bird started to write commentary on Latin, American, and English literature, particularly the Elizabethan playwrights. He then started to write short poems and fiction during his time in medical school. He had little passion for medicine. By 1827, he had published items in the Philadelphia Monthly Magazine along with two comedies, 'Twas All for the Best and News of the Night.[3] After graduating from medical school, he attempted to begin a medical practice, but became discouraged after one year and left medicine to pursue a literary career.[3] Career[edit] In a small notebook labeled "Useful Works- if well prepared," Bird set his goal to write nine biographies, thirty volumes of miscellaneous studies, three volumes of tales, some select novels of Boccaccio, the Arabian nights, eleven tragedies, twelve comedies, thirty three melodramas, and twenty-five novels. He did not approach his career casually. When he learned of Forrest's contest, he entered. And, in 1828, Bird's play Pelopidas won a $1000 prize offered by the actor Edwin Forrest, but was never produced because Forrest found the play unsuitable to highlight his strengths as a performer. With Forrest's guidance, Bird wrote another play, The Gladiator, which was produced in 1831.[4] It was perfect to showcase Forrest's muscular acting style. It also went really well in the theatre. It was the first play to be performed so often in the author's lifetime. This launched Bird as a playwright. Bird and Forrest quickly became friends. Bird wrote several other plays for Forrest, some of them being "Oralloossa, Son of the Incas" and "The Broker of Bogota." Forrest had promised to pay Bird more for these plays if they proved successful. Though they were, Forrest refused to give Bird additional money. He did not want to share in his success (which must have been at least a hundred thousand dollars on "Gladiator" alone).Bird's frustration with Forrest pushed him into writing novels.[2] These include Calavar (1834), The Infidel (1835), The Hawks of Hawk-Hollow (1835), Sheppard Lee (1836), Nick of the Woods (1837) (his most successful novel), and The Adventures of Robin Day (1839).[5] Calavar and The Infidel are notable for their graphic and accurate details and descriptions of Mexican history. His final novel was "A Belated Revenge", and it was finished by his son, Frederick M. Bird (1889). Bird also pursued a number of other interests. In 1837, he began a career as a journalist, working as the Associate Editor for The American Monthly Magazine. He became the editor of the North American Magazine and United States Gazette in 1847. He also taught medicine at the Pennsylvania Medical College and ran for Congress in 1842 (an attempt which was later aborted).[6] The five years from 1834 to 1839 were filled with too much activity: six novels and a part of a seventh, his marriage, the birth of his son, and his final bitter quarrel with Forrest. According to Christopher Looby, "Bird's biographers say that the intensity of these literary labors led to a breakdown of his health, possibly including a mental disorder, and that he retired to a farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1840 to restore himself." He then changed his occupation again. He became the Professor of the Institutes of Medicine and Materia Medica at the Pennsylvania Medical College in Philadelphia (1841-1843). During this period he met Senator John M. Clayton, became interested in politics, was a delegate to the Whig Convention in Baltimore in 1844, and in 1848 wrote a campaign biography of General Zachary Taylor. He then bought a third interest in the Philadelphia "North American and United States Gazette". This was his final profession. He became ill in the early winter of 1853, and it was too late to seek remedy in a change of occupation. He died on January 23, 1854 of effusion of the brain. He is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.[7] Notes[edit] ^ Kelly, Howard A.; Burrage, Walter L. (eds.). "Bird, Robert Montgomery" . American Medical Biographies . Baltimore: The Norman, Remington Company. ^ a b Ehrlich, Eugene and Gorton Carruth. The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982: 217. ISBN 0-19-503186-5 ^ a b c Looby, xxii ^ Looby, xxiii ^ Looby, xxiii–xxiv ^ Looby, xxv ^ Laurel Hill Cemetery References[edit] Looby, Christopher. "Introduction" to Sheppard Lee: Written By Himself by Robert Montgomery Bird. New York: The New York Review of Books, 2008. External links[edit] Works by Robert Montgomery Bird at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Robert Montgomery Bird at Internet Archive Works by Robert Montgomery Bird at Google Books Works by Robert Montgomery Bird at Munseys Robert Montgomery Bird Papers, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Daniel Traister. "Robert Montgomery Bird: Writer and Artist", an exhibition at the Kamin Gallery, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, University of Pennsylvania, Feb-2003. "Robert Montgomery Bird", short biography, Encyclopædia Britannica Online "Robert Montgomery Bird", short biography, UXL Newsmakers, 2005. Clement Edgar Foust. The Life and Dramatic Works of Robert Montgomery Bird. New York, Knickerbocker Press. 1919. Authority control BNE: XX1582280 BNF: cb15685866w (data) CANTIC: a11036904 GND: 118658883 ISNI: 0000 0001 0914 587X LCCN: n83041882 NDL: 00978382 NKC: mub2015888221 NLI: 004090166 NTA: 070310661 PIC: 272421 PLWABN: 9810661002105606 SELIBR: 40981 SNAC: w6m61mxd SUDOC: 147471931 Trove: 793178 VIAF: 71722323 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n83041882 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Montgomery_Bird&oldid=991520296" Categories: 1806 births 1854 deaths 19th-century American dramatists and playwrights 19th-century American male writers 19th-century American novelists 19th-century American physicians American male novelists Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) Germantown Academy alumni Novelists from Pennsylvania People from New Castle, Delaware University of Pennsylvania alumni Writers from Delaware Hidden categories: Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from American Medical Biographies Articles with Project Gutenberg links Articles with Internet Archive links Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLI identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with PIC identifiers Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikisource Languages العربية Deutsch Français Italiano Latina مصرى Русский Svenska Edit links This page was last edited on 30 November 2020, at 14:11 (UTC). 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