Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/286

CORNELIUS A. LOGAN. Cornelius A. Logan was born in the year 1800, in the city of Baltimore. He was educated at St. Mary's College, and was destined for the priesthood, but a restless disposition baffled the wishes of his parents, and, entering into the employment of shipping merchants of that city, he made several voyages to Europe in the capacity of supercargo. Becoming tired of seafaring, he turned his attention to literature. For three years he assisted the celebrated Paul Allen in the editorial department of the Baltimore Morning Chronicle, in which office he learned the printing business. He was after- ward connected with William Leggett in the project of establishing a daily penny paper in the city of New York. The enterprise failed, and Mr. Logan went to Philadel- phia and attached himself to the leading papers of that place, as a theatrical critic. This occupation developed a natural taste for the stage, and soon after, he adopted the profession of an actor. Those who recollect him only as a comedian of the highest popularity, will be surprised to learn that he commenced his career as a tragedian. In 1840 he removed with his family to Cincinnati, and resided there until his death, which occurred February twenty-second, 1853. Mr. Logan was a classical scholar of large attainments, and a fluent, versatile writer. He was a bold defender of the stage against the attacks which, he thought, were unjustly made upon it from the pulpit. He wrote a reply to a sermon by Lyman Beecher, which was extensively copied throughout the country, as much for the learn- ing it displayed, as for its admirable temper. He wrote many plays. Among them, the "Wag of Maine," a comedy in three acts, first performed in New York in 1835, and pronounced to be the best American comedy that has been written ; " The Wool Dealer," a farce written for, and played by, the late Dan Marble ; " Yankee Land," a comedy first produced in Charleston, South CaroHna, in 1834; "Removing the Deposits," a local farce brought out in Philadelphia ; "Astarte," an adaptation of Shelley's " Cenci ; " An Hundred Years Hence," a burlesque which displayed varied knowledge and great humor. He was the author of several newspaper tales which have become familiar by republication. Among them is "A Husband's Vengeance," a prize story for Neal's Saturday Gazette. The newspapers of his day published many epigrams and playful satires from his pen, but he neglected to make any collection of these, or of his poems. " The Mississippi " was copied, at the time of its first publication, by the Edinburgh Review, prefaced by a handsome tribute to the author. Two of Mr. Logan's daughters, Eliza and Cecilia, adopted the profession in which their father became distinguished. Eliza has been, since 1849, one of the most popu- lar actresses of the West. Mr. Logan's only son, Thomas A., is a prosperous attorney in Cincinnati. ( 270 )