![Wolcott Balestier](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Wolcott_Balestier.jpg)
Charles Wolcott Balestier (December 13, 1861 – December 6, 1891) was a promising American writer, editor, and publisher who died young, and is now remembered primarily for his connection to
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
...
. His sister
Carrie Balestier married Kipling in 1891.
Biography
Balestier was born in
Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
. His paternal grandfather, whose ancestors were from
Martinique
Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...
, was a founder of the
Century Association
The Century Association is a private social, arts, and dining club in New York City, founded in 1847. Its clubhouse is located at 7 West 43rd Street near Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. It is primarily a club for men and women with distinction ...
; his maternal grandfather was E. Peshine Smith, who with Commodore Perry completed commercial negotiations with Japan. Balestier studied for one year at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, and studied law for one summer (1883) at the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
. He worked for a short time at the Rochester Post Express, and later ran his own newspaper in Rochester.
At age 17 he began to send stories to the ''
Atlantic Monthly
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', then edited by
William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells (; March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of ''The Atlantic Monthly'', ...
. His first published work was a story entitled "A Patent Philter", which was published serially in the daily ''
New York Tribune
The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the domi ...
'' in 1884. His first novel, ''A Fair Device'', was published in the same year, as was his campaign biography for presidential candidate
James G. Blaine. In 1886, he published ''A Victorious Defeat''. He co-authored with Rudyard Kipling ''
The Naulahka'', published in 1892 after his death.
Around 1884, the John W. Lovell Company in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
made him editor of their magazine, ''Tid Bits'', which he renamed ''Time'' and made a success. In the autumn of 1888, he moved to England to purchase literary copyrights for the Lovells. In this profession, he became acquainted with all the leading British authors, and particularly with
Henry James
Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
, who wrote in 1890 that "I have lately seen much of the admirably acute and intelligent young Balestrier." In 1890, he formed a partnership with
William Heinemann
William Henry Heinemann (18 May 1863 – 5 October 1920) was an English publisher of Jewish descent and the founder of the Heinemann publishing house in London.
Early life
On 18 May 1863, Heinemann was born in Surbiton, Surrey, England. Heine ...
to establish the firm Heinemann & Balestier, which published the ''
Review of Reviews
The ''Review of Reviews'' was a noted family of monthly journals founded in 1890–1893 by British reform journalist William Thomas Stead (1849–1912). Established across three continents in London (1891), New York (1892) and Melbourne (1893), t ...
'' in London, and
The English Library series in continental Europe.
At about that time,
Edmund Gosse
Sir Edmund William Gosse (; 21 September 184916 May 1928) was an English poet, author and critic. He was strictly brought up in a small Protestant sect, the Plymouth Brethren, but broke away sharply from that faith. His account of his childhoo ...
described him as a "mixture of suave Colonial French and the strained nervous New England blood.... a carefully dressed young-old man or elderly youth, clean-shaven, with smooth dark hair, thin nose, large sensitive ears, and whimsically mobile mouth."
Balestier died in 1891 in
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
, a victim of
typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...
.
Henry James
Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
traveled to Dresden for the funeral, and described it as follows: "The English chaplain read the service with sufficient yet not offensive sonority, and the arrangements were of an admirable, decorously grave German kind." As
Henry Adams
Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents.
As a young Harvard graduate, he served as secretary to his father, Charles Fr ...
later wrote, "I sat with Henry James an hour or two yesterday afternoon and found him in double trouble between the death of his friend Balestier and the steady decline of his sister."
Edmund Gosse
Sir Edmund William Gosse (; 21 September 184916 May 1928) was an English poet, author and critic. He was strictly brought up in a small Protestant sect, the Plymouth Brethren, but broke away sharply from that faith. His account of his childhoo ...
wrote of Balestier that he had never met anyone "who had anything like his power of marshaling before his memory, in due order, all the militant English writers of the moment, small as well as great." In Balestier's obituary in the New York Times,
William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells (; March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of ''The Atlantic Monthly'', ...
states that he knew him quite well and that "Mr. Balestier would have achieved great fame had he lived a few more years."
Selected works
* ''A Common Story'' (story),
The Century Magazine
''The Century Magazine'' was an illustrated monthly magazine first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City, which had been bought in that year by Roswell Smith and renamed by him after the Century Associatio ...
* ''A Patent Philter'' (story), 1884
* ''A Fair Device'', 1884
* ''James G. Blaine: A Sketch of His Life'', R. Worthington, 1884
* ''A Victorious Defeat'', 1886
''New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors''
/ref>
* '' The Naulahka: A Story of West and East'', with Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
...
, 1892
* ''Benefits Forgot'', 1892
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balestier, Wolcott
1861 births
1891 deaths
Writers from Rochester, New York
Rudyard Kipling
American male novelists
American male poets
American poets
19th-century American novelists
19th-century male writers
Deaths from typhoid fever
American people of Martiniquais descent
Infectious disease deaths in Germany
American expatriates in Germany
University of Virginia alumni
Cornell University alumni