US Stamps
Born Feb. 3: Sidney Lanier

By Michael Baadke
Identified most frequently as an accomplished poet of the American South, Sidney Lanier was also a novelist, a musician and music theorist, a teacher, a lawyer, an essayist and, for a period of one year, a postal clerk in Macon, Ga. All of this and more he accomplished in a lifetime of fewer than 40 years.
He was born in Macon on Feb. 3, 1842, and attended Oglethorpe University, graduating in 1860. With the onset of the Civil War, Lanier served in the Confederate Army as a pilot on a blockade runner. Captured in 1864, he contracted tuberculosis while imprisoned; the effects of the disease would eventually cause his early death.
Connect with Linn's Stamp News:
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Keep up with us on Instagram
After the war Lanier took on various jobs while composing poetry and writing his only novel, Tiger Lilies (1867). Some of his poetry included Southern dialect and spoke of natural settings in the South.
In the 1870s Lanier moved to Baltimore where he lectured at Johns Hopkins University and was first flautist with the Peabody Institute Orchestra. His new poems were published in magazines, and during this time he wrote some of his most famous verses, including The Marshes of Glynn in 1878, and Sunrise in 1880.
Lanier died at age 39 on Sept. 7, 1881. An 8¢ commemorative honoring him in the American Poets series was issued Feb. 3, 1972, marking his 130th birth anniversary (Scott 1446).
MORE RELATED ARTICLES
Headlines
-
World Stamps
Nov 23, 2023, 6 PMFinland to issue President Ahtisaari mourning stamp
-
Auctions
Nov 23, 2023, 2 PMRumsey Dec. 11-14 auction series features specialized collections of machine cancels, post office seals, Pacific Mail Steamship Co., Nepal; gems of philately
-
Postal Updates
Nov 22, 2023, 4 PMUSPS 2024 price increases to push Priority Mail Express stamp past $30 mark
-
US Stamps
Nov 22, 2023, 1 PMU.S. 2012 Bonsai double-sided pane of 20 in demand