Background
Griswold was born to Rufus and Deborah (Wass) Griswold on the 13th of February, 1815, in Vermont. He was the twelfth of fourteen children and his father was a farmer and shoemaker.
anthologist clergyman critic editor poet
Griswold was born to Rufus and Deborah (Wass) Griswold on the 13th of February, 1815, in Vermont. He was the twelfth of fourteen children and his father was a farmer and shoemaker.
Griswold travelled extensively, worked in newspaper offices, was a Baptist clergyman for a time, and finally became a journalist in New York City, where he was successively a member of the staffs of The Brother Jonathan, The New World (1839-1840) and The New Yorker (1840).
From 1841 to 1843 he edited Graham's Magazine (Philadelphia), and added to its list of contributors many leading American writers. From 1856 to 1852 he edited the International Magazine (New York), which in 1852 was merged into Harper's Magazine. He died in New York City in 1857.
His editional works included: Prose Writers of America (1846); Female Poets of America (1848); and Sacred Poets of England and America (1849). He edited the first American edition of Milton's prose works (1845), and, as literary executor, edited, with James R. Lowell and N. P. Willis, the works (1850) of Edgar Allan Poe.
Rufus Wilmot Griswold was best known as the compiler and editor of various anthologies (with brief biographies and critiques), such as "Poets and Poetry of America" (1842), his most popular and valuable book. Of his own writings his "Republican Court: or American Society in the Days of Washington" (1854) was the only one of permanent value.
Griswold is considered an expert in American poetry and was an early proponent of its inclusion on the school curriculum. He also supported the introduction of copyright legislation, speaking to Congress on behalf of the publishing industry, although he was not above infringing the copyright of other people's work.
Griswold's great contemporary reputation as a critic has not stood the test of time; but he rendered a valuable service in making Americans better acquainted with the poetry and prose of their own countrymen.
(Excerpt from The Sacred Poets of England and America, for...)
(Excerpt from The Poets and Poetry of America: To the Midd...)
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
Griswold married Caroline Searles on August 12, 1837, and the couple had two daughters. In 1845, Griswold married second time, Charlotte Myers, a Jewish woman.
