Well, Tigger got everybody’s mojo working….
On with the results; thank you Ashley! For reference, our subject’s photo once again:
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You guys did a GREAT job on this one! There were several comments I felt were hits. The man in the photo is George Lippard (1822-1854). He was the premier American fiction writer of the middle part of the 19th century, though largely forgotten today. Most of you are probably far more familiar with George’s bestie (BFF… friend?), Edgar Allan Poe. Several of you picked up that he was, indeed, a writer.
Lippard wrote fictionalized accounts of actual historic events – the revolutionary war [USA independence], the Liberty Bell, George Washington and Thomas Paine were popular settings and characters – the original “ripped from the headlines” (sorry Law & Order!). In fact, [US President] Ronald Reagan famously quoted one of Lippard’s stories, mistakenly thinking it was an actual historic fact. Lippard’s most famous story, the Quaker City, centered on social injustice of the working class.
- Warrior, soldier or leader of significance prevailing in conflict involving his organization.
- Fought hard for cause…
“Have something to say and say it with all your might,” was George Lippard’s motto. It was Lippard’s keen observance of the plight of the working people and exceptional criticism of hypocrisy which led him to fight against social injustice through his writings and become an early labor leader, forming a secret society of working men that had tens of thousands of members across the country and survived into the 1980s.
A wild Romantic journalist and novelist, he gave Philadelphia its sobriquet “The Quaker City.” He also gave it an extremely bad reputation with his best-selling novel of the same name.
With his most famous novel, it is obvious that Lippard deplored the treatment of the poor. He saw the criminal class as a creation of a callous system of neglect. He railed against the treatment of the insane who were placed in asylums little better than prisons. He was incensed at the effrontery of religious preachers who collected money from the poor and spent it on their own material comfort. The rich, especially the bankers, took the most pointed criticism, not only for profiting off the backs of the poor, but also for their indifference to those more needy. Banks failed and bankers walked away from the wreckage. However, the working man who has toiled away the years to save a few hundred dollars for his child’s future is left destitute when a bank fails (hmmm sound familiar???).
Lippard reveled in being a famous writer, and played this part to the hilt, carrying most times a sword-cane and a brace of loaded pistols, and staging his wedding to his beloved wife on a rock in the Wissahickon at sunset.
- A man who walks and moves strongly and powerfully.
“Lippard was present, wrapped in an ample cloak, and carrying a sword-cane to repel assault. He moved freely among the mob, without much care if he was seen or not. . . .”—From the account of the abortive opening of the theatrical version of The Quaker City in 1844 which caused a full on riot in the city; in John Bell Bouton’s Life of Lippard, 1855.
- an austere man with a puritanical outlook
Lippard was very Christian and even studied to become a minister, but dropped out – disenchanted by the leadership he saw there, and became vehemently opposed organized religion. His other interests and obsessions included the mystic Germantown hermits, who had started their philosophical experiments in caves on the Delaware’s banks, and legends surrounding the American Revolution, some of his own invention, such as the apocryphal ringing of the Liberty Bell to herald Independence. He also tried out other Gothic sub-genres such as the Supernatural and Christian mysticism. It is rumored that he was a Rosacrucian initiate.
Some of you picked up on the name Daniel, and that Lippard had 5 siblings. His father was Daniel Lippard and George was one of six siblings. One of you also picked up that George had 2 children – that is correct.
- He was extremely independent. When this guy fell in love, he was so passionate and overwhelmingly connected to the person.
- He had a beautiful wife and he missed her for some reason.
Lippard died at a very young age of tuberculosis – he was only 32. But his young wife, Rose, and their two children preceded him in death years earlier. Here’s a poem he wrote to Rose before they were married:
The stream may cease to flow, the sun may cease to shine
The air may lose its life, all things of life their breath
But maiden I am thine, and maiden thou art mine
Mine in life on life, mine in despair or death
Mine by the wanes of fate that onward round me roll
Mine in life, and mine in death; the Vow is on my soul
George and Rose moved into the house vacated by Poe when he left Philadelphia. Lippard also wrote Poe’s eulogy. Many considered them two of a kind. If there’s anything more you want to know – you can do a simple Google search of George Lippard and find quite a bit of information about him, but we’ve decided to do a bit better than that. We’re going to just talk to George himself. 🙂 Patrick’s next committee channeling will, hopefully, have George Lippard as a guest speaker It should be interesting to hear what he has to say about the state of the world today!
