TAYLOR, [JAMES] BAYARD (1825-78). An American poet, man of letters, journalist, and traveler, horn at Kennett Square, Chester Co., Pa. Ills education was obtained in the common schools of the neighborhood. He became, in 1842, the apprentice of a printer, and here he published his first volume, Ximena; or the Battle of the Sierra Morena, and Other Poems (1844). In 1844-45 he made a pedestrian tour through Europe, describing his experiences in Views Afoot ; or Europe Seen with Knapsack and Staff (1846). The following year, 1847. he joined the New York Tribune, and remained on the staff of that paper as long as Ile lived, publishing in its pages the sketches of many of his subsequent books. As its special correspondent, Ile visited California in 1S49, where he spent five months among the gold-diggers; two years later he was in Egypt, Asia Minor. and Syria; in 1852-53 in India, crossing from Bombay to Calcutta, and then going to China to join the expedition of Commodore Perry to Japan. From 1862 to 1863 he was secretary of the United States legation at Saint Petersburg, and later charge d'affaires there, and was influential in securing for the Northern States the sympathy of Russia. In 1874 he was again in Egypt, and the same year at the Millennial Celebration in Iceland. For several years previously he had lived in Ger many, and there in 1870-71 he brought out the work for which he is best known, his excellent translation of Goethe's Faust. In 1876 he wrote the Ode in honor of the opening of the Cen tennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. In February, 1878, he was appointed Minister to Germany, and returned again to that country. but died there toward the end of the same year, leaving unfinished biographies of Goethe and Schiller. He was married in 1850 to Miss May Agnew, and in 1857, to Miss Marie Hansen of Gotha, Ger many, who survived him, reedited his works, and, with H. E. Scudder, wrote his Life and Letters (1884).
Taylor's work is very voluminous, and varied both in kind and in quality. He wrote books of
travel, of which the chief are: El Dorado; or Adventures in the Path of Empire (1850) : A Journey to Central Africa (1854) ; A. Visit to India, China, and Japan (1855) : The Lands of the Saracen (1855) : Northern Travel (1858) ; Travels in Greece and Russia (1859) ; At Home and Abroad (1859 and 1862) ; Colorado, a Sum mer Idyl (1S67) ; By-Ways of Europe (1860) ; Egypt and Iceland in the Year 1873 (1874) ; and others. His novels include: Hunnah Thurston (1863) : John Godfrey's Fortunes (]864) : The Story of Kennett (1866)•; Joseph and His Friend (1870). His poems were also very numerous; besides Ximena, the chief volumes are: Rhymes of Travel, Ballads, and Other Poems (1849); The American Legend (1850), delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard; A Book of Romances, Lyrics, and Songs (1852) ; Poems and Ballads (1854) ; Poems of the Oriont (1855) ; Poems of Home and Trarel (1855) ; The Poet's Journal (1863); The Picture of Saint John ( 1866) ; The Ballad of Abraham Lincoln (1870) ; The Masque of the Gods (1S72) ; Lars, A Pas toral of Norway (1873) ; The Prophet, A Trag edy (1874) ; Home Pastorals, Ballads, and Lyrics (1875) ; and The National Ode (1876), all showing variety in subject and manner. He had a distinct lyrical faculty, as his beautiful "Bedouin's Song" proves, but he Dever seemed able to bring his varied powers under full ar tistic control. The public persisted in regarding him as a traveler and journalist rather than as a poet. and, despite the remonstrances of some friendly critics, it is probable that the public was right. At most he is a minor poet, a good translator, and a versatile writer of prose. Be sides the biography by his wife, there is a Life by Albert H. Smythe, in the "American Men of Letters" series (1896), and a sketch of his per sonality is to be found in W. D. Howells's Liter ary Friends and Acquaintance (1900).