John Blair Linn
John Blair Linn was an American writer, poet, and theologian born to a prominent family with a strong academic and religious background. His father, William Linn, was a distinguished liberal Presbyterian clergyman and an influential figure in higher education, serving as president of multiple colleges and chaplain to the U.S. House of Representatives. Displaying remarkable intellectual prowess from a young age, Linn entered Columbia College at just fourteen and published his first work in a magazine before turning seventeen. His literary contributions include the volumes "Miscellaneous Works, Prose, and Poetical Works" and "The Poetical Wanderer," showcasing sentimental prose and derivative verse influenced by predecessors like James Macpherson.
Linn's critical essays, particularly "The Young Compositor," are notable for their originality and engagement with European Romanticism, where he defined literary genius as an imaginative force unbound by convention. In addition to poetry, he ventured into drama with his play "Bourville Castle," which had a brief performance history. He pursued theological studies after receiving his degrees and became copastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Although his career was cut short by tuberculosis at the age of twenty-seven, Linn's works and intellectual legacy continue to be recognized, with his papers preserved at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
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John Blair Linn
Poet
- Born: March 14, 1777
- Birthplace: Shippensburg, Pennsylvania
- Died: August 30, 1804
- Place of death: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Biography
Linn was the son of William and Rebecca Blair Linn. His mother was the daughter of the clergyman John Blair, and his father was a distinguished liberal Presbyterian clergyman. His father served as the pastor of two churches, but also became President of Washington College; Regent of the University of the State of New York; Acting President of Queen’s College (now Rutgers); President of Union College; and Chaplain to the United States House of Representatives.
Linn himself was precocious; he entered Columbia College at fourteen and had published in the New-York Magazine before he was seventeen. In 1795, he received his B.A. degree at the age of eighteen and published his first volume of poetry and prose, Miscellaneous Works, Prose, and Poetical Works. His prose fiction was sentimental, and his verse was derivative, modeled on James Macpherson’s “Ossian” and the Graveyard Poets. His critical essays, particularly an essay on literary genius titled “The Young Compositor,” are more original and have continued to attract attention.
His essay on literary genius was reprinted from New-York Magazine, and it is one of the earliest American critical studies written in response to European Romanticism. Linn defines literary genius as an unshackled imagination and describes poetry as natural and free-flowing at a time when his contemporaries were writing strictly neoclassical verse. After graduation, Linn read law with Alexander Hamilton, but found his literary pursuits more attractive. His second book of poetry, The Poetical Wanderer appeared a year after his first.
Linn also tried his hand at drama, writing a play titled Bourville Castle: Or, The Gallic Orphan. The play was actually produced by the John Street Theater, but closed after one performance, and no copy of the script has survived. Linn then decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and enrolled at Union College to study theology; he received an M.A. from Union in 1797 and another from Columbia in 1798. He became the copastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia in 1799. Since he had a livelihood, he was able to marry Harriet Bailey of Poughkeepsie, New York.
Linn maintained his interest in literature, joining the Tuesday Club, a literary society that included among its members the novelist Charles Brockden Brown, the playwright Charles Jared Ingersoll, and the literary editor Joseph Dennie. In 1800, Linn published a book-length poem, “The Death of Washington,” but was criticized for using the style of “Ossian” to praise an American national hero. He seems to have retained his interest in the nature of genius, and published in 1801 The Powers of Genius. This work attempts to reconcile the aesthetics of Scots theoreticians, principally Hugh Blair’s Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (1783) with Romanticism. Before he could fulfill his promise, Linn died of tuberculosis in 1804 at twenty-seven. His papers have been preserved at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.