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Bryant was born in the backwoods of Massachusetts and raised
by a strict Calvinist father. Under the influence of the British
"graveyard poets" and William Wordsworth, who celebrated
the majesty of nature, Bryant wrote the first draft of "Thanatopsis"
in 1813 or 1814. This poem won him immediate acclaim when
he first published it in 1817. Unfortunately, the life of
a poet was not a practical possibility for the young Bryant.
He worked as a lawyer and a justice of the peace in Massachusetts
until he followed his literary dreams and moved his family
to New York City. In New York Bryant began a long and distinguished
career in magazine publishing, first as an editor at the
New York Review and Atheneum Magazine and then most significantly
as editor-in-chief at the Evening Post. His editorials
in the Evening Post, focusing on the political events
of the day, helped make his newspaper one of the most respected
in the country. Later, when Bryant was in his seventies, he
completed verse translations of both the Iliad (1870)
and the Odyssey (1872) and printed his collected
Poems in 1876.
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