Search >> Wood, Frank (1841-1864)

Playwright, Editor, Journalist, Translator, Theater Critic.

Numerous historical sources place Frank Wood at Pfaff’s--Whitman himself referred to the man as one of the regulars (CW 5:21). Like many of the frequenters of Pfaff’s, Wood died young, at twenty-three years old, without realizing his full potential; in the 1875 obituary for Henry Clapp, editor of the Saturday Press and “king” of Pfaff’s, Wood is described as "the invalid cynic Frank Wood -- too bright, if not too beautiful, to last" (“Obituary” 7). Pfaff’s frequenter and theater critic William Winter includes Wood among the “vanished comrades” Symonds, Wilkins, Neill, and O’Brien whose names are “not to be spoken without a sigh of regret” (Old Friends xxxvii); Winter remarks of Wood and fellow journalist Henry Neill that "both of them died in youth, with their promise unfulfilled" (65). Upon O’Brien’s death, Wood wrote an emotional tribute which was published in the New York Leader on April 12, 1862, and was later anthologized by Winter in his biography about O’Brien. Wood had been selected by O’Brien himself, along with Thomas E. Davis, as the literary executor of the dying writer’s work.

The chroniclers of Pfaff’s and the biographers of its more famous frequenters describe Wood as a journalist who contributed to publications like Vanity Fair, the Saturday Press, and the New York Leader (J. Browne 156, E. Lalor 4, F. Stovall 223). In The Great Metropolis; A Mirror of New York (1869) Junius Browne notes that Wood was part of the "fraternity" that met at Pfaff’s who "had late suppers, and were brilliant with talk over beer and pipes for several years… Those were merry and famous nights, and many bright conceits and witticisms were discharged over the festive board" (156-7). Winter remembers Henry Neill and Frank Wood as "young journalists of fine ability," stating that they "were frequently present" at Pfaff’s (Old Friends 65).

In addition to paying attention to politics (Wood wrote pieces about the time he spent in South Carolina before that state seceded from the Union), Wood’s career also testifies to his interest in theater. William Winter notes that Wood wrote theatrical notices for Illustrated News and was a dramatic critic for the Spirit of the Times. A playwright like fellow Pfaff’s frequenter John Brougham, Wood penned a "clever burlesque" Leah the Forsook that attracted Augustin Daly’s attention and began their collaboration (Odell 7:550); Wood then served as Daly’s assistant for Taming a Butterfly. Leah seems to have been the more successful production. Wood also wrote The Statue Bride and the burletta The Marble Maiden, or the Ghost of Cologne, played by Keene’s company on Sept. 25, 1863. (7:550-551,617). Observing that Wood also translated Michelet’s “L’Amour,” William Winter contends that “As a writer, [Wood] was clear, vigorous, often humorous, always manly and truthful. As a man, he met frankness with frankness, and did his duty faithfully, and gained true friends who do not forget him” (Old Friends xxxvii).

Along with other members of the Vanity Fair staff Edward F. Mullen and Charles Dawson Shanly, Wood was the inspiration for a character in Artemus Ward’s Woshy-Boshy; or, The Prestidigitating Squaw of the Snakeheads which began on November 2, 1861 (Seitz 90); perhaps because of this, Wood was also remembered in 1888 as a colorful character and became one of the bohemians “gossiped” about by Rufus B. Wilson in a “reminiscent letter to the Galveston News” (Current Literature 479). Wood died at Haverstraw in Rockland County, New York and was buried at his birthplace in Auburn.

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References & Biographical Resources

Allen, Gay Wilson. The Solitary Singer: A Critical Biography of Walt Whitman. New York: MacMillan, 1955. [more about this work]

Wood is mentioned by Whitman as one of the departed company who used to frequent Pfaff's (494).

Source: Whitman - CW 5:21 [pages: 494]

Browne, Junius Henri. The Great Metropolis; A Mirror of New York. Hartford: American Publishing, 1869. 700 p. [more about this work]

Browne notes that Wood is deceased at the time of his writing. Wood was a contributor to Vanity Fair and other contemporary publications (156).

He was part of the "fraternity" that met at Pfaff's resturant, that "had late suppers, and were brilliant with talk over beer and pipes for several years." Browne claims "Those were merry and famous nights, and many bright conceits and witticisms were discharged over the festive board" (156-7). [pages: 156-157]

Donaldson, Thomas. Walt Whitman the Man. New York; F.P. Harper, 1896. 276 p. [more about this work]

[pages: 208]

Epstein, Daniel Mark. Lincoln and Whitman: Parallel Lives in Civil War Washington. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2004. 379 p. [more about this work]

[pages: 55]

"General gossip of authors and writers." Current Literature. 1888: 476-480. [more about this work]

Mentioned as one of the Bohemians at Pfaff's "gossiped" about by Rufus B. Wilson in a "reminiscent letter to the Galveston News." [pages: 479]

Lalor, Eugene T. The Literary Bohemians of New York City in the Mid-Nineteenth Century. Ph.D. Dissertation, St. John's University, 1977. 364 p. [more about this work]

Described by Lalor as a "tangential figure." Was the editor of Vanity Fair (4). [pages: 4]

Leland, Charles Godfrey. Memoirs. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1893. [more about this work]

[pages: 234]

McArone [Arnold, George]. "McArone [From the Weekly Review, Oct. 14]." New York Saturday Press. 11 Nov. 1865: 225. [more about this work]

Miller, Tice L. Bohemians and Critics: American Theatre Criticism in the Nineteenth Century. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1981. [more about this work]

A regular at Pfaff's (16).

[pages: 16, 37?, 71?]

"Obituary: Henry Clapp." The New-York Times. 11 Apr. 1875: 7. [more about this work]

He is described as a regular at Pfaff's who has also passed away. Wood is described as "the invalid cynic Frank Wood -- too bright, if not too beautiful, to last." [pages: 7]

Odell, George C.D. Annals of the New York Stage: Volume VIII (1865-1870). New York:Columbia University Press, 1936. [more about this work]

(Unconfirmed, may be another Frank Wood) May have been a part of a vairety show that featured the Zanfretta troupe in 1866-67 season (225). Also listed as appearing in a variety in 1868-69 season (505). [pages: 225,505]

Odell, George Clinton. Annals of the New York Stage: Volume VII (1857-1865). New York: Columbia University Press, 1931. [more about this work]

Augustin Daly's assistant for Taming a Butterfly. Wood is described as a young newspaper man; his "clever burlesque" Leah the Forsook attracted Daly's attention and began their collaboration (550). Leah the Forsook seems to have been more successful than his play with Daly. Wood also wrote the burletta The Marble Maiden, or the Ghost of Cologne, played by Keene's company on Sept. 25, 1863. [pages: 550-551,617]

Rawson, A. L. "A Bygone Bohemia." Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly. 1896. 96-107. [more about this work]

[pages: 103]

Seitz, Don Carlos. Artemus Ward (Charles Farrar Browne): A Biography and Bibliography. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1919. [more about this work]

Seitz names Wood and Mullen as journalists at Vanity Fair. [pages: 76, 90, 97, 101, 107, 234, 292]

Sentilles, Renee M. Performing Menken: Adah Isaacs Menken and the Birth of American Celebrity. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2003. [more about this work]

A regular in the bohemian circle at Pfaff's. [pages: 142]

Stansell, Christine. "Whitman at Pfaff's: Commercial Culture, Literary Life and New York Bohemia at Mid-Century." Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. 10.3 (1993): 107-126. [more about this work]

He is listed as one of the Pfaffian writers that "have fallen into obscurity." Stansell wonders how much influence these writers weilded on Whitman's literary career (108). [pages: 108]

Stovall, Floyd. The Foreground of Leaves of Grass. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1974. [more about this work]

Wood was one of the members of the Pfaff's circle and the founder of Vanity Fair. [pages: 223]

Watson, J. W. "Notes and Comments: How Artemus Ward Became a Great Lecturer." North American Review. Apr. 1889: 521-522. [more about this work]

Watson lists Frank Wood as an editor of Vanity Fair (521). [pages: 521]

Whitman, Walt. Complete Writings of Walt Whitman. Eds. Richard Maurice Bucke, Thomas B. Harned, and Horace L. Traubel. New York: Putnam, 1902. [more about this work]

Whitman records in his journal on August 16 that he met with Charles Pfaff for an excellent breakfast at his restaurant on 24th Street. “Our host himself, an old friend of mine, quickly appear’d on the scene to welcome me and bring up the news, and, first opening a big fat bottle of the best wine in the cellar, talk about ante-bellum times, ’59 and ’60, and the jovial suppers at his then Broadway place, near Bleecker street. Ah, the friends and names and frequenters, those times, that place. Most are dead—Ada Clare, Wilkins, Daisy Sheppard, O’Brien, Henry Clapp, Stnaley, Mullin, Wood, Brougham, Arnold—all gone. And there Pfaff and I, sitting opposite each other at the little table, gave rememberance to them in a style they would have themselves fully confirm’d, namely, big, brimming, fill’d-up champagne-glasses, drain’d in abstracted silence, very leisurely, to the last drop.” [pages: 5:21]

Winter, William. Old Friends; Being Literary Recollections of Other Days. New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1909. 407 p. [more about this work]

He is listed by Winter as one of the Bohemians who frequented Pfaff's Cave (88).

Henry Neill and Frank Wood were "young journalists of fine ability," and "were frequently present" at Pfaff's. Winter continues, "both of them died in youth, with their promise unfulfilled" (65). [pages: 65,88]

Wolle, Francis. Fitz-James O'Brien: A Literary Bohemian of the Eighteen-Fifties. Boulder, Col.; University of Colorado, 1944. 309 p. [more about this work]

Whitman mentions him as a leader at Pfaff's. [pages: 126]

Wood, Frank. "O'Brien as Poet and Soldier." The Poems and Stories of Fitz-James O'Brien; Collected and Edited, with a Sketch of the Author. Ed. Winter, William. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1881. xxxvi-xlv. [more about this work]

William Winter's footnotes to Wood's tribute to O'Brien include biographical details about Wood's life and professional career. [pages: xxxvi-xxxvii]