Joseph Brown Ladd
Joseph Brown Ladd was an American poet born in 1764 in Newport, Rhode Island, known for his role in the transition from classicism to preromanticism. As the eldest son of a Revolutionary War soldier and Rhode Island legislator, Ladd demonstrated an early talent for poetry, publishing his first piece at the age of ten. His education took place in private schools, after which he briefly worked in a mercantile business before turning to a printing shop, where he began writing ballads and satirical verses. A conflict arising from one of his satires led him to study medicine, alongside his interests in philosophy and classical literature.
After earning his medical license in 1783, Ladd moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where he gained respect as both a physician and a writer, contributing poetry to the Charleston Columbian Herald. His work often explored nationalistic themes, with "Prospect of America" being one of his most recognized poems. He published a collection titled *The Poems of Arouet* shortly before his untimely death in a duel at the age of twenty-two. While Ladd's poetry holds historical significance, it is primarily noted more for its context than for its literary merit.
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Joseph Brown Ladd
Nonfiction Writer and Poet
- Born: July 7, 1764
- Birthplace: Newport, Rhode Island
- Died: November 2, 1786
- Place of death: Charleston, South Carolina
Biography
Joseph Brown Ladd was a poet representative of the transition from classicism to preromanticism. He was born in Newport Rhode, Island, in 1764, the eldest son of William and Sarah (Gardner) Ladd. Ladd’s father was a soldier in the American Revolution and a member of the Rhode Island legislature. Ladd was obviously prodigious, publishing his first poem, “Invocation to the Almighty,” in the Newport Mercury when he was ten years old. He was educated at private schools in Newport. When he was fourteen, he found a job with a mercantile business, but he disliked it and left for a job at a printing shop. About this time he began writing ballads and satirical verse. After one satire offended a prominent theologian, his father removed him from the printing shop and Ladd started medical studies.
While he studied medicine for the next four years, he also immersed himself in philosophy, classical literature, and science, and began writing serious poetry when a doomed love affair inspired him. He received his license to practice medicine in 1783, and moved to Charleston, South Carolina In Charleston, he became a respected physician and man of letters, publishing poems regularly in the Charleston Columbian Herald. Ladd received the greatest recognition for his poetry on nationalistic themes, and his most popular poem was “Prospect of America.”
A book of Ladd’s poetry, The Poems of Arouet (1786), was published the year he died; the volume features love poems from Arouet to Amanda, with Ladd identifiable as Arouet. Ladd’s work contains references to Johann Wolfgang van Goethe and William Collins, with some descriptive methods similar to the work of Thomas Gray and Oliver Goldsmith. He accepted a challenge to a duel and died of his wounds in 1786, when he was twenty-two years old. Without a mature body of work, his poems are more important for their historical interest than for their merit.