William Cullen Bryant

Born in Cummington, Massachusetts on November 3, 1794, William Cullen Bryant demonstrated astonishing prodigy, penning his meditative masterpiece Thanatopsis at age seventeen in 1811 (published in the North American Review in 1817). Meditating on nature, mortality, and the universal brotherhood of death, Thanatopsis was hailed as the first great poem produced in the young American republic. Bryant followed with classic nature lyrics including "To a Waterfowl" and "The Yellow Violet". Relocating to New York City, Bryant became editor-in-chief of the New York Evening Post in 1829, directing the newspaper for nearly half a century. A fearless crusader for civil liberties, Bryant used his editorial pulpit to champion workers' rights to unionize, religious tolerance, free trade, the immediate abolition of slavery, and the preservation of urban green spaces—becoming the primary civic visionary who campaigned for and created New York City’s Central Park. An early organizer of the Republican Party, Bryant introduced Abraham Lincoln at his historic 1860 Cooper Union address that catapulted Lincoln to the presidency. Bryant Park in Manhattan is named in his enduring honor.