Author: Walter, William Bicker
Biography:
WALTER, William Bicker (1796-1822: ancestry.com)
He was born in Boston, the eldest son of William Walter (the name of his mother has not been found) and the grandson of William Walter (1737-1800), a clergyman who was a Harvard graduate and rector of Christ Church in Boston from 1791 until his death. He graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine in 1818, then studied divinity in Cambridge MA but was not ordained. Instead he pursued his literary interests. He was a regular contributor of original poems and translations to newspapers and magazines--many of them collected in the Poems that he dedicated to John Pierpont (q.v.). Late in 1822 he delivered a series of lectures on poetry in Philadelphia, then took it on the road, starting with Baltimore in October. He reached Charleston SC but there he died of unknown causes, probably in Dec. 1822 although news reports date from the following spring. Extracts from his work were included in Kettell's Specimens of American Poetry in 1829. (ancestry.com 11 Dec. 2020; Appleton; Salem Gazette 13 May 1823) HJ
Other Names:
- William B. Walter