22 Facts About Sidney Lanier

Sidney Clopton Lanier was an American musician, poet and author.

Sidney Lanier served in the Confederate States Army as a private, worked on a blockade-running ship for which he was imprisoned, taught, worked at a hotel where he gave musical performances, was a church organist, and worked as a lawyer.

Sidney Lanier became a flautist and sold poems to publications.

Sidney Lanier eventually became a professor of literature at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and is known for his adaptation of musical meter to poetry.

Sidney Clopton Lanier was born February 3,1842, in Macon, Georgia, to parents Robert Sampson Lanier and Mary Jane Anderson; he was mostly of English ancestry.

Sidney Lanier began playing the flute at an early age, and his love of that musical instrument continued throughout his life.

Sidney Lanier attended Oglethorpe University, which at the time was near Milledgeville, Georgia, and he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

Sidney Lanier graduated first in his class shortly before the outbreak of the American Civil War.

Sidney Lanier returned to Oglethorpe the next year, as a tutor, and befriended Milton Harlow Northrup, a New York native, who was a conductor at the school.

Sidney Lanier was incarcerated in a military prison at Point Lookout in Maryland, where he contracted tuberculosis.

Sidney Lanier suffered greatly from this disease, then incurable and usually fatal, for the rest of his life.

Sidney Lanier was the regular organist at the First Presbyterian Church in nearby Prattville.

Sidney Lanier wrote his only novel, Tiger Lilies, while in Alabama.

Sidney Lanier married Mary Day of Macon in 1867 and moved back to his hometown, where he began working in his father's law office.

Sidney Lanier traveled extensively through southern and eastern portions of the United States in search of a cure for his tuberculosis.

Sidney Lanier taught himself musical notation and quickly rose to the position of first flautist.

Sidney Lanier was famous in his day for his performances of a personal composition for the flute called "Black Birds", which mimics the song of that species.

Sidney Lanier published a series of lectures entitled The English Novel and a book entitled The Science of English Verse, in which he developed a novel theory exploring the connections between musical notation and meter in poetry.

Sidney Lanier finally succumbed to complications caused by his tuberculosis on September 7,1881, while convalescing with his family near Lynn, North Carolina.

Sidney Lanier is buried in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore.

Sidney Lanier published essays on other literary and musical topics and a notable series of four redactions of literary works about knightly combat and chivalry in modernized language more appealing to the boys of his day:.

Sidney Lanier wrote two travelogues that were widely read at the time, entitled Florida: Its Scenery, Climate and History and Sketches of India.