Byrd, William. (1674 - 1744).
L i f e
- coloniser in the South, in Virginia
- a witty, wealthy, and well-read writer, planter, and government official
- moved between London and Virginia: a gentleman and gallant in sophisticated London society x but: readily adapted to Virginia plantation life
- inherited a great estate from his father, laid out the today’s city of Richmond on one of the estates
W o r k
Diary:
- a miscellany of dietary practices, relig. devotions, business matters, social intercourse, and sexual escapades
History of the Dividing Line (published 1841):
< his own experience of one of the commissioners surveying the disputed boundary between Virginia and North Carolina in 1728
- anecdotal, ironic, and sardonic
Quote
"Amongst other Indian Commodities, they brought over Some of the bewitching Vegetable, Tobacco. And this being the first that ever came to England, Sir Walter thought he could do no less than make a present of Some of the brightest of it to His Roial Mistress, for her own Smoaking. The Queen graciously accepted of it, but finding her Stomach sicken after two or three Whiffs, it was presently whispered by the Earl of Leicester's Faction, that Sir Walter had certainly Poison'd Her. But Her Majesty soon recovering Her Disorder, obliged the Countess of Nottingham and all her Maids to Smoak a whole Pipe out amongst them".
From The History of the Dividing Line (1841).
Basics
(Painting: Hans Hysing. Ca 1724. Source: Va Historical org).
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Author
William Byrd. (1674 - 1744). American. -
Work
Colonizer. Planter of Richmond. -
Genres
Autobiographical writing. Humour.
Literature
Bercovitch, Sacvan, ed. The Cambridge History of American Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Cunliffe, Marcus. The Literature of the United States. London: Penguin, 1991.
Ruland, Richard, Malcolm Bradbury. Od puritanismu k postmodernismu. Praha: Mladá fronta, 1997.
Vančura, Zdeněk, ed. Slovník spisovatelů: Spojené státy americké. Praha: Odeon, 1979.