George Arnold was born on June 24, 1834 in New York City, New York, United States. Presumably the Rev. George B. Arnold, listed in the city directory of that year as living at No. 119 was his father, but nothing definite is known of his family.
From Arnold's third to his fifteenth year his parents lived in Alton, Illinois. They then settled at Strawberry Farms, Monmouth County, New Jersey, near a Fourierite phalanstery, which at the time was in process of dissolution.
His country boyhood made him familiar with aspects of nature which he later turned to account in his serious poetry. Contact with the Fourierites seems to have given him a bent for independent speculation, though he was never in active sympathy with any sect of reformers.
Education
Arnold was educated at home.
Career
In the autumn of 1852 Arnold entered the studio of a portrait painter in New York City, but within two years found his true vocation in literature. His training in painting was not wasted, however, since it enabled him to write art criticism for the press and to illustrate his lighter verse with comic drawings.
His caricature of himself in the character of "McArone" is reproduced in the preface to his Poems (1886), and another of the sculptor Launt Thompson is included in Ferris Greenslet's Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1908).
According to William Winter, Arnold was for a short time employed as the sub-editor of a story paper. He soon, however, became a freelancer, contributing a large quantity of fluent writing to various newspapers and magazines. He turned out stories, sketches, essays, poems, comic and satirical verse, criticisms of books and paintings, editorial articles, jokes and pointed paragraphs with equal facility. Most of them were published anonymously or under such pseudonyms as "Graham Allen, " "George Garrulous, " "Pierrot, " and "The Undersigned. " His greatest success was attained with a series of papers signed "McArone, " begun in Vanity Fair, Nov. 24, 1860, continued in the Leader, and concluded in the Weekly Review, October 14, 1865.
The sunny and preposterous absurdity of these burlesques, dealing first with the Italian campaign of 1860, then with the Civil War and miscellaneous topics, delighted the reading public at a time when spontaneous gaiety was at a premium. Arnold's lighter verse, particularly "The Jolly Old Pedagogue, " also enjoyed a wide circulation.
During the Civil War he served for some time with troops stationed at one of the forts on Governor's Island, New York. Early in 1865 his health gave way, and he died at Strawberry Farms on November 9, 1865.
Arnold was closely associated with the "Bohemians" of Pfaff's beer-cellar, marshaled by Henry Clapp of the Saturday Press, and including FitzHugh Ludlow, William Winter, Fitz James O'Brien, and other young writers and artists. Stedman, Aldrich, Whitman, and "Artemus Ward" were occasional visitors at Pfaff's.
Among the not always harmonious "Bohemians" he was universally beloved. The Bohemian pose, however, was fatal to one of his easy temper. It encouraged him to take the attitude of a farceur and to make no effort to improve his position as an author.
He never collected any of his work for book publication and his career from first to last was marked by ineffectiveness. He contributed a few acting proverbs to Frank Cahill's Parlor Theatricals (1859).
A comic Life and Adventures of Jeff. Davis, by "McArone" appeared in 1865 (chap-book). Two volumes of Arnold's poetry were edited by William Winter: Drift: a Sea-Shore Idyl and Other Poems (1866) and Poems Grave and Gay (1867). Both together were reissued as The Poems of George Arnold, Complete Edition (1886).
Achievements
Personality
Arnold was said to be a handsome, merry creature, whose blue eyes sparkled with mirth, whose voice was cheerful, whose manners were buoyant and winning, whose courtesy was free and gay. His manly character, his careless good-humor, his blithe temperment, his personal beauty, and his winning manners made him attractive to everybody.