Introduction
Henry Theodore Tuckerman (April 20, 1813 – December 17, 1871) was an American writer, essayist and critic.
Early life
Henry Theodore Tuckerman was born on April 20, 1813 in Boston, Massachusetts to Henry Harris Tuckerman (1783–1860) and Ruth Lyman Keating (1787–1823). His parents had the following children: Elizabeth Tuckerman Heath (d. 1847), Henry Theodore Tuckerman, Lucy Keating Tuckerman (1820–1880), Ruth Keating Tuckerman (1821–1896), and Charles Keating Tuckerman (1821–1896). His sister Ruth married Rudolph Bunner, Jr. (1813–1875), the son of Rudolph Bunner (1779–1837), a U.S. Representative from New York.
His first cousins included Edward Tuckerman (1817–1886), the botanist, Samuel Parkman Tuckerman (1819–1890), the composer, and Frederick Goddard Tuckerman (1821–1873), the poet.
Career
He was a sympathetic and delicate critic, with a graceful style. He wrote extensively both in prose and verse. He traveled extensively in Italy, which influenced his choice of subjects in his earlier writings. These include The Italian Sketch-book (1835); Isabel, or Sicily: A Pilgrimage (1839); two volumes of verse, Poems (1851) and A Sheaf of Verse (1864);Thoughts on the Poets (1864); The Criterion, or the Test of Talk About Familiar Things (1866); The Book of the Artists (1867); Leaves from the Diary of a Dreamer, etc.He was prominent in the literary life of New York City after 1845.
Articles that Tuckerman wrote for The Knickerbocker magazine include: Love in a Lazzaret (1838), a vignette from his travels in Italy, New York Artists (1856), Something About Wine (1858), Newport Out of Season (1858), Italia Libera (1861), Paris and Life There (1861), Obituary of John W. Francis, M.D., LL.D. (1861).
Personal life
Tuckerman died of pneumonia on December 17, 1871 and his funeral was held on December 20, 1871 in New York.