Robert Waln

January 20, 1794 (age 30)

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

The wealth and social position of his family made it unnecessary for him to earn his living. On the other hand, the traditions of the Society of Friends with whom they had long been affiliated forbade idleness. The young man showed an active interest in the great importing business conducted by Jesse and Robert Waln, his father and father's cousin, with Canton and the East. But literature was his chosen pursuit. His education, obviously liberal, was broadened by extensive and purposeful reading, for which Philadelphia afforded rich opportunities, while at the stately country seat of his father, Waln-Grove, at Frankford, five miles from Philadelphia, was an unusually large and well-equipped library. He maintained an eager interest in current American literary activity, contributed to the periodicals of the times and was conversant with their editors, and developed a special aptitude for criticism and biography. He exemplifies very well a Philadelphia tradition of aristocratic scholarship and belles-lettres. His first independently published work (February 1819) was a vivid satire on manners in the wealthy inner circle of Philadelphia society: The Hermit in America on a Visit to Philadelphia. . Edited by Peter Atall, Esq. In March of the same year this had a second edition, in which considerable alterations were made. Early in 1821 appeared a second series of the Hermit's observations. These works are both in prose. In November 1820 Waln had published Sisyphi Opus, or Touches at the Times, written in classical couplets, touching on some of the same themes. Another satire, purely literary in subject, also written in couplets, American Bards, had been published in August 1820. Part of this, the author said, had been written during a voyage "beyond the Cape of Good Hope. " It should not be confused with a contemporary piece of the same title. During 1823 he published, in quarto numbers, an elaborate work on China, its geography, history, customs, and trade relations. His interest in this subject was definitely related to the family business. Intensive research during many years was supplemented by a four months' residence in Canton from September 1819 to January 1820. The first draft of the manuscript was largely written during the long voyage home. About the same time he took over the editorship of the Biography of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence, which had been begun by John and James Sanderson. Altogether he edited or wrote some fourteen of the lives. From Waln-Grove in the summer of 1824 he issued proposals for publishing by subscription a Life of the Marquis de La Fayette, completing it at the same place in June 1825. His sudden death occurred scarcely three weeks later. He died at Providence, R. I, in his thirty-first year.