Author: Judah, Samuel Benjamin Helbert
Biography:
JUDAH, Samuel Benjamin Helbert (c. 1799-1876: DAB)
He was the son of Benjamin and Elizabeth Judah--a descendant of an old colonial Jewish family that had settled in New York in the early eighteenth century. As a young man, he wrote three comedies and melodramas that were performed without success, followed by the verse satires of Gotham and the Gothamites (1823) that led to his being convicted of libel, fined, and imprisoned for several weeks until he received a pardon on the grounds of ill health. He then turned to law. He was admitted to the bar in 1825 and practised for the rest of his life. He did not marry and had no children. His third name is sometimes mistakenly given as "Herbert" in catalogue records; two plays of the 1830s are sometimes erroneously attributed to him. A manuscript volume of "Leisure Hours" dated 1821 that includes some unpublished poems and a tragedy is held in the Archives at Brown University. (DAB; WorldCat) HJ