Charles godfrey leland biography

Charles Godfrey Leland (born Aug. 15, 1824, Philadelphia—died March 20, 1903, Florence) was an.
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Charles Godfrey Leland (August 15, 1824 – March 20, 1903) was an American humorist and folklorist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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Charles Godfrey Leland was born in Philadelphia on 15 August 1824. He graduated from Princeton University in 1845 and spent the next three years in Europe, studying at Heidelberg and Munich. Upon returning to Philadelphia, he studied law and practiced briefly beginning in 1851 before turning to a career as a writer and journalist. During his lifetime, he was best known for his playful and popular "Hans Breitmann" poems which, in their cleverly twisted Anglo-German dialect, displayed Leland's considerable linguistic skills. Those skills were also evident in his translation of Heinrich Heine's Pictures of Travel and Book of Songs (1855) and in his studies of Romany, Etruscan, Shelta, and other equally obscure languages and dialects. Leland's role in founding an industrial arts school in Philadelphia (1881) is evidence of his practical commitment to popular education. His connection with Whitman came first by way of his brother Henry, whom Whitman recalled fondly as an early supporter, and by way of his translation of Heine's Pictures, which Whitman read in 1856. More directly, the

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Leland, Charles Godfrey (1824-1903)

Leland's pen name was Hans Breitmann, under which he wrote "funny ballads in the German dialect"; Leland was also "the authority on Gypsy lore, a participant of the French barricades of 1848, a fighter in the American Civil War, the editor of the old Vanity Fair." Parry quotes Leland's niece, Elizabeth Robins Pennell:

"Anywhere, save in Philadelphia, he might, like Gautier in Paris, have gathered a group of other impatient young souls about him. In Philadelphia, he was practically alone, so that his contempt was not tempered by the humour of companionship. To be in revolt all by one's self was to have none of the fun of defiance" (151).

Leland was born and raised in Philadelpia and educated at Princeton, Heidelberg, and Munich and spent time in Paris, where Parry quotes his niece, "the vie de Boheme had not become petrified into a legend; Murger, its prophet was just beginning to be heard of" (151). Parry notes that his letters to his brother Henry in the Winter on 1847-1848 seem to celebrate the Bohemian lifestyle, but Parry notes that L

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Charles Godfrey Leland

American journalist

"Charles Leland" redirects here. For the Ohio politician and judge, see Charles A. Leland.

Charles Godfrey Leland (August 15, 1824 – March 20, 1903) was an American humorist and folklorist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was educated at Princeton University and in Europe.

Leland worked in journalism, travelled extensively, and became interested in folklore and folk linguistics. He published books and articles on American and European languages and folk traditions. He worked in a wide variety of trades, achieved recognition as the author of the comic Hans Breitmann’s Ballads,^[1] and fought in two conflicts. He wrote Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, which became a primary source text for Neopaganism half a century later.

Early life

Leland was born to Charles Leland, a commission merchant, and Charlotte Godfrey on 15 August 1824 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother was a protegee of Hannah Adams, the first American woman to write professionally. Leland believed he was descended from J