George Henry Boker was an American dramatist, diplomat, and poet,
Background
Boker was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father was Charles S. Boker, a wealthy banker, whose financial expertness weathered the Girard National Bank through the panic years of 1838-40, and whose honour, impugned after his 1857 death, was defended many years later by his son in "The Book of the Dead. "
Education
George Henry Boker was brought up in an atmosphere of ease and refinement, receiving his preparatory education in private schools, and entering Princeton University in 1840.
Career
After graduation he turned to writing for the theater and embarked on a career of some success as a writer of romantic tragedy. His first example of this form was Calaynos (published in 1848), a play dealing with a love intrigue based on the Spanish hatred of the Moors. The later Leonor de Guzman (1853) also employed a Spanish theme. Boker's most important creation, Francesca da Rimini (1855), a retelling of the love story of Paolo and Francesca, is considered by some to be one of the finest verse dramas written in the United States. Boker wrote few comedies, but The Betrothal (1850) had a successful run in the United States and was produced in England in 1853. As a poet he achieved a reputation with Plays and Poems (1856) and Poems of the War (1864), and as a writer of sonnets he has been ranked close to Longfellow. Boker also enjoyed some prominence as a diplomat. He acted as United States Minister to Turkey from 1871 to 1875, and from 1875 to 1878 he served in a similar capacity in Russia. He died January 2, 1890.