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George Pope Morris Biography

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MORRIS, George Pope (1802-64). An American journalist and poet, born in Philadelphia. He founded with Samuel Woodworth (q.v.) in New York the Mirror (1823-42), a literary weekly, which became the New Mirror, and the Evening Mirror. In these journals appeared much early work of Bryant, Halleck, Poe, Paulding, Willis, Hoffman, and others, making these periodicals important elements in the literary development of the time. Morris also founded the National Press (1845), out of which was developed the Home Journal (1846), in which Willis, who had long been associated with Morris, again collaborated. His Briarcliff (1825), founded on Revolutionary incidents and events, was a popular success. His Poems, collected for the last time in 1860, contained the familiar ballads, "Woodman, Spare that Tree" (founded on a real incident), "My Mother's Bible," "We Were Boys Together," 'and "A Long Time Ago." Morris died in New York, July 6, 1864. Consult J. G. Wilson, Bryant and his Friends (New York, 1886).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XVI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 285.