Author: Gallagher, William Davis
Biography:
Gallagher, William Davis (1808-94: ANBO)
A pioneering poet of the West, he was born in Philadelphia to Bernard and Abigail (Davis) Gallagher. After the death of his father in 1814, his mother took her three sons to settle in Mount Pleasant OH, where William Gallagher eventually served an apprenticeship to become a printer. His career as a poet and magazine editor began in Cincinnati, where between 1826 and 1838 he graduated from editing and contributing to current journals and newspapers to founding his own, without lasting success. About 1830, he married Emma Anderson (d 1867); four of their nine children survived him. After ten years (1839-50) with the Cincinnati Gazette, during which time he became increasingly committed to the movement against slavery, Gallagher moved to Kentucky, where he alternated between government service and farming. His literary legacy rests on his poetry--some of which was set to music--and on his work as an editor and anthologist, notably his Selections from the Poetical Literature of the West (1841), later reissued under other titles. (ANBO 26 Dec. 2018)
Other Names:
- William D. Gallagher