Charles Powell Clinch

Background

Charles Powell Clinch was born on October 20, 1797 in New York City, New York, United States. He was the son of James Clinch, a wealthy ship-chandler of New York City.

Education

Clinch received a public school education.

Career

Clinch obtained a post as secretary to Henry Eckford, prominent marine architect and father- in-law of Joseph Rodman Drake, the poet. Through his employer he met Drake, FitzGreene Halleek and other New York writers with whom he formed warm friendships. In 1835 he was elected a member of the state legislature, and his absences in Albany on this duty made the only break in his life-long residence in New York City and its environs. In that same year, fire plagued the city, and Clinch, who had invested heavily in insurance stocks, lost a fortune.

In 1838 he obtained a place as inspector in the New York Custom House, becoming deputy collector and then assistant collector. He rendered indefatigable and faithful service for forty years, refusing on principle to act upon cases arising out of the importations of A. T. Stewart, his brother-in-law. In 1876 he retired and moved from Staten Island back to New York City, where he died on December 16, 1880. A likeness, taken late in life, pictures an exceedingly handsome man with bushy white hair, a clear eye, and a determined mouth.

During the long years of a busy life, Clinch acted as literary and dramatic critic and editorial writer for the press, prepared public addresses, and wrote plays, including The Spy (1822); The Expelled Collegians', and The First of May, which was produced at the Broadway Theatre. The manuscript of The Spy bears the marks of practical use, but it is uncertain that the play was professionally produced. The stiffness of its dialogue and its use of formal soliloquies sufficiently account for any want of marked appeal to the public taste. Clinch’s critical prose possesses ease of manner, and his public addresses must have had a certain rhetorical force in delivery.

On July 4, 1823, he delivered before the Fire Department of the City of New York an Oration on the 47th Anniversary of American Independence, which was subsequently published. When in 1819 Drake and Halleck were writing the clever series of verse satires, known under the collective name of The Croakers, upon the political and social life of New York City, Clinch, with four other friends, assisted in preserving the anonymity of the two poets by copying the verses before they were sent to the New York Evening Post in which they received publication. He especially admired the poetry of Halleck and Bryant and dedicated a poem to the memory of the latter. The Knickerbockers, in turn, apparently considered him a clever and worthy member of their group. Clinch’s relationship to them did not prohibit, now and then, a certain rivalry, as when both Halleck and Clinch submitted manuscripts, published in 1821, in competition for the prize address on the occasion of the opening of the Park Theatre in New York City.

Achievements

• Charles Powell Clinch achieved his fame as a playwright. His most successful play was "A Spy, a Tale of neutral ground" (1822). It was dramatic romance based on Cooper’s novel of that name.

Works

More photos

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  • Oration on the Forty-Seventh Anniversary of American Independence, Delivered Before the Fire Department of the City of New York, July 4, 1823

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

Connections

Father:

James Clinch

brother-in-law:

A. T. Stewart

References

• Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Beginnings (Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts)