William Shakespeare Hays
William Shakespeare Hays | |
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Born | Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. | July 19, 1837
Died | July 23, 1907 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. | (aged 70)
Resting place | Cave Hill Cemetery Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
Occupations |
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Spouse | Rosa Belle McCullough |
Children | 2 |
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William Shakespeare Hays (July 19, 1837 – July 23, 1907) was an American poet and lyricist. He wrote some 350 songs over his career and sold as many as 20 million copies of his works. These pieces varied in tone from low comedy to sentimental and pious; his material was sometimes confused with that of Stephen Foster as a result. In his later years, Hays put forth one of the more plausible claims to authorship of the song "Dixie". In the end, however, no evidence could be produced to back up his pretensions.
Biography
Hays was born as William Hays in Louisville, Kentucky, which was then a small but rapidly growing city where he would spend most of his life. He published his first poetry in 1856 and 1857 through the paper of his Georgetown, Kentucky, school. Hays eventually received the nickname "Shakespeare" for his writings, an appellation he made a formal part of his name.
Hays finished school and returned to Louisville in 1857. He found employment at D. P. Fauld's music store, where he continued to write music and poetry. He published many of his pieces under pen names, including Syah ("Hays" spelled backward). He also produced three small collections of poetry.
Over his career, Hays is credited with over 350 songs, and he may have sold as many as 20 million copies of his works, making him more prolific than most of his 19th century peers.[1] His songs show a great variety, ranging from austere hymns to base minstrel tunes. In fact, the style of some of his songs was so like that of Stephen Foster that the two men's material was sometimes confused.[1]
Hays was married to Rosa Belle McCullough (1847–1935), and the couple had two children, Mattie and Samuel. Hays died in Louisville on July 23, 1907, less than a week after his 70th birthday. He is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery.
"Dixie" claims
In his later years, Hays claimed to have written the lyrics to "Dixie", a song that had enjoyed unprecedented popularity since before the American Civil War and that was by then usually attributed to minstrel show songwriter Dan Emmett. Specifically, Hays said that he had written the song at Faulds in 1858, one year before Emmett and Bryant's Minstrels first performed it.[1]
In May 1907, Hays presented his claims to a Southern historical society in Louisville known as the
Meanwhile, the 70-year-old Hays grew ill, and his wife took over management of his case. She wrote to Oliver Ditson & Co., a Boston-based publisher, for information on "Away Down South in Dixie" by Will S. Hays. They responded that they did not have such a song in their catalog.[1] William Shakespeare Hays died in 1907 with no resolution to his claim.
However, Hays's claim was not forgotten. In 1908, Thomas J. Firth, a music teacher in
In 1916, Edward Le Roy Rice, journalist for
In 1937, Hays's daughter made one final attempt to support her father as the author of "Dixie". She wrote to The Etude that her father had written "Dixie" for the Buckner Guards "when they were called south during the Civil War". The editor, James Coke, asked for evidence, but she could provide none.[2] To this day: there remains, as yet, no known evidence to support Hays' claim that he did indeed write "Dixie".
Notes
References
- Abel, E. Lawrence (2000). Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861-1865. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books.
External links
- William Shakespeare Hays at Find a Grave
- Works by Hays on IMSLP.