Theodore Sedgwick Fay
Theodore Sedgwick Fay (1807–1898) was an American writer and diplomat, known for his contributions to literature during the early 19th century. Born in New York City, he initially pursued a career in law but transitioned to writing after the death of his father, who had been a contributor to The New York Mirror. Fay's early work included a popular column that employed humor and satire to address social issues in New York, such as poverty and the responsibilities of wealth. His first novel, "Norman Leslie," became a bestseller and was notable enough to attract criticism from contemporaries like Edgar Allan Poe.
Fay's career included several prestigious diplomatic roles, beginning as secretary to the minister in London, which did not deter him from literary pursuits. He authored multiple novels, including "The Countess Ida" and "A Tale of Berlin," and even ventured into poetry. After retiring from public service in 1861, he settled in Berlin with his second wife, where he focused on history and travel writing. His later work, "The Three Germanys," provided an insightful look into Germany's political landscape. Although his literary prominence waned, Fay's early writings are considered significant contributions to the Knickerbocker School of American literature, characterized by their wit and polished style.
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Theodore Sedgwick Fay
Writer
- Born: February 10, 1807
- Birthplace: New York, New York
- Died: November 24, 1898
- Place of death: Berlin, Germany
Biography
Theodore Sedgwick Fay was born in New York City on February 10, 1807. Fay’s father, a lawyer, regularly contributed light, observational pieces to The New York Mirror in a column called “Little Genius.” Fay clerked in his father’s office and intended to join the practice when, in 1825, the elder Fay died unexpectedly. The younger Fay passed the bar exam three years later, but by then he had assumed duties writing his father’s column, and was regularly publishing elegant and perceptive pieces (termed “reveries”) that used wry humor and gentle satire to examine issues facing the burgeoning metropolis. Fay loved New York City, and he used his columns to discuss the responsibilities of the wealthy, poverty, the role of the press, and the emergence of an indigenous theater. His essays were sufficiently popular to convince Fay to abandon law. In 1833, he married and headed for an extended honeymoon in Europe where, despite health problems, he continued to send back columns about his travels. In Europe, Fay completed his first novel, Norman Leslie: A Tale of the Present Times (1835). Inspired by a murder trial that had rocked New York a generation earlier, the plot follows a young man acquitted of killing a beautiful woman who later mysteriously turns up in Europe. A best-seller, the novel was popular enough to draw the disdain of Edgar Allan Poe, whose unflattering review caustically dismissed the book as an “inestimable piece of balderdash.”
In 1836, Fay accepted the first of a number of prestigious diplomatic appointments. He began as secretary to the minister to the Court of St. James and was later posted to Berlin and Bern. Despite the considerable responsibilities of his postings, he wrote three novels: The Countess Ida (1840); A Tale of Berlin (1840), a melodrama centered on a forced marriage set during the French Revolution that graphically recreates the bloody violence in the Paris streets; and Hoboken: A Romance (1843), a tense story of wronged honor that exposes the evils of dueling and extols the stability of Christianity. He tried his hand at poetry: Ulric: Or, The Voices (1851) was an overly didactic, epic-styled tale of a noble knight during the Reformation. Although his fiction sold well, Fay abandoned it to pursue his interest in history and travel. He retired from public service in 1861 and settled in Berlin with his second wife, a German. His The Three Germanys: Glimpses into Their History (1889) offered to his American audience a dramatic narrative of contemporary Germany struggling to maintain its Christian democratic values on the heels of midcentury political upheavals. Fay died on November 24, 1898. In a long life, Fay had managed to outlive his literary prominence, and his novels today can appear contrived in their plotting and overly moral in their resolution. But his early work remains among the finest of the Knickerbocker School, the first generation of American authors who, following the international celebrity of Washington Irving, produced an abundance of sketches defined by an enduring element of sophisticated wit and elegant polish.