John Howard Payne

John Howard Payne
Born	(1791-06-09)June 9, 1791 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	April 10, 1852(1852-04-10) (aged 60) Tunis, Tunisia
Resting place	Oak Hill Cemetery Washington, D.C., U.S.
Occupation(s)	Actor, poet, playwright, and author
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John Howard Payne (June 9, 1791 – April 10, 1852) was an American actor, poet, playwright, and author who had nearly two decades of a theatrical career and success in London. He is today most remembered as the creator of "Home! Sweet Home!", a song he wrote in 1822 that became widely popular in the United States and the English-speaking world. Its popularity was revived during the American Civil War, as troops on both sides embraced it.

After his return to the United States in 1832, Payne spent time with the Cherokee Indians in the Southeast and interviewed many elders. Intending to write about them, he amassed material about their culture, language and society, which have been useful to scholars. But his published theory that suggested their origin as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel has been thoroughly disproved. At that time, European Americans were still strongly influenced by a Biblical basis of history in trying to understand origins of the peoples in the Americas.^[1]

Friends helped gain Payne's appointment in 1842 as American Consul to

Payne started a college paper called the Pastime, which he kept up for several issues. When he was 16, his mother died, and the academy run by his father was failing. Payne, unhappy in his "exile" at Union, left at Easter to be with his family. He told his grieving father that he was dropping out of college to pursue a stage career. On February 24, 1809, he made his debut at the old Park Theatre in New York in the eponymous role of Young Norval. Scoring a brilliant success, he went on to become the first American actor to play Hamlet; regarded as a prodigy, he was regaled as a home town wonder when he returned to Boston, among other major cities where he toured. His appearances as Romeo to Eliza Poe, Edgar Allan Poe's mother, won particular acclaim, and he favored her to play opposite him in comedies. But despite his success, he had difficulty getting paid by the theaters. In a brief interval away from the theatre, he founded the Athenaeum, a circulating library and reading room.^[4]

Payne was friends with

Befriended by the English tragedian George Frederick Cooke, who appeared with Payne in King Lear at New York's Park Theatre, Payne decided to seek recognition in London's theatre world, and he sailed across the Atlantic in February 1813.^[4]

Although London had numerous actors, Payne quickly drew praise in his engagements at Drury Lane and Covent Garden. Next he performed in Paris. Resuming his interest in playwriting, he wrote original plays, and also adapted and translated a variety of French works for production in England. In 1818, he sold his Brutus, which gained much respect. But a constant need for money led him to expand into theater management at Sadler's Wells Theatre, an endeavor that clearly proved it was not among his skills.^[4]

In 1823, Payne sold a group of his plays to Charles Kemble, the manager of Covent Garden Theatre, for £230. But, the first that Kemble chose to stage was already being produced elsewhere. Payne considered this a minor hurdle. By tinkering with the plot and adding song lyrics, Payne transformed it into an operetta he entitled Clari; or the Maid of Milan. Among the new material was "Home, Sweet Home," a reworking of a poem he had written as a Union College student. This song helped make the operetta an instantaneous success and Payne a famous man. Set to music Sir Henry Bishop adapted from an Italian folk tune, the song ensured Payne's lasting fame,^[6] The sheet music rapidly sold 100,000 copies, earning its publishers £2,100 net profit in the first year. Years later, when the Lincoln family was mourning the death of their son, the president asked that the song be played repeatedly at the White House. As was typical throughout his career, however, Payne realized only meager profits from its enormous popularity.^[4] "While his money lasted, he was a prince of bohemians", but had little business sense.^[7]

While in Europe, Payne had several romantic interests, including a brief infatuation with Mary Shelley, Shelley's young widow and the author of Frankenstein. He lost interest when he realized she hoped only to use him to attract the notice of his friend, Washington Irving. Payne never married.

1832 Return to the US and study of the Cherokee

Leaving Europe after nearly two decades, Payne returned to the United States in 1832.^[8] Friends arranged a benefit concert in New York to try to help him earn a stake to get resettled.^[9] He also toured the country with artist and naturalist John James Audubon.^[3]

Desperate to earn income by writing for periodicals, Payne sought to exploit public interest in the

During his early years, Payne became known as a prominent literary and theater figure. He was closely associated with writer Washington Irving, with whom he collaborated on five plays. He is described as one of the more gifted young poets of his generation in the Cambridge History of American Poetry. But he chose other areas to develop, as poetry paid almost nothing at the start of the nineteenth century.

Last years in North Africa

In 1842, President

"[N]ever was a dead poet so famous for a single song, or so honored."[10] Payne's song was widely sung during the American Civil War, when it was treasured by troops of both the North and the South. It was also a particular favorite of President Abraham Lincoln. He asked Italian opera star Adelina Patti to perform it for him and his wife when the diva appeared at the White House in 1862. The Lincolns were still mourning the death of their son Willie.^[3]

Philanthropist

• 1873: A bronze bust of Payne was installed with a public ceremony in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.
• 1883: Payne's ashes were brought back to the United States, received with honors and held in state at New York's City Hall. They were reinterred in a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on the 91st anniversary of his birth.
• Circa 1890s: Payne's grandfather's home on James Lane in East Hampton was preserved by
  Gustav Buek, a wealthy admirer of the poet, and identified as "Home Sweet Home" in Payne's honor. Payne spent time there as a child.^[3][14]
• 1970: John Howard Payne was posthumously inducted into the
  parlor song composer Carrie Jacobs-Bond, born in 1862.^[15]

References

• Mircea Eliade, Image and Symbol
• Lee Irwin, "Cherokee Healing: Myth, Dreams, and Medicine", American Indian Quarterly, Vol. 16, 2, 1992, p. 237
• Charles H. Sylvester, "John Howard Payne and 'Home, Sweet Home' ", Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 6, p. 221 (published 1922), The Project Gutenberg eBook
• Frank Gado "Appearing As Edgar's Father," Open Letters Monthly, August, 2012.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Howard Payne.

Wikiquote has quotations related to John Howard Payne.

• Works by or about John Howard Payne at Internet Archive
• Works by John Howard Payne at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• John Howard Payne at the Songwriters Hall of Fame
• John Howard Payne Papers at Newberry Library
• Finding aid to John Howard Payne papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.