Individuals >> Newell, Robert Henry ( Orpheus C. Kerr ) (1836-1901)

Journalist, Poet, Editor.

Born and raised in New York City, Robert Henry Newell entered the world of journalism at age twenty-two. His submissions to various periodicals “achieved immediate recognition” and brought him a job offer from the New York Sunday Mercury. During the Civil War, Newell wrote the “Orpheus C. Kerr papers, originally initiated in the form of Washington correspondence to the Mercury . . . The name was a supposedly laughable transposition of ‘office seeker,’” referring to the plethora of candidates attempting to obtain a political office when Lincoln became president (Leacock). The Orpheus C. Kerr papers are best known for their “comic commentary on the history of the Civil War” (Leacock). In one of the letters Kerr satirizes famous authors of the day, using “a mixture of the mock heroic style adopted and popularized by Dickens, written in correct orthography and grammatical language, but with a false elevation of tone, and the loose, comic humor of gargantuan exaggeration, gross misspelling, and wilful [sic] irreverence for solemnity which had been already initiated in the West (Artemus Ward, Mark Twain)” (Leacock).

He remained at the Mercury until 1862, and it was during this time that he met Adah Isaacs Menken. Newell, writing about himself as Orpheus C. Kerr, notes that “the Mercury’s editor, Robert Henry Newell, detested Whitman’s poetry, but loved [Adah] Menken, and she was able to beguile the editor into running her tribute” (qtd. in M. Hyman 59). He was also described as one of the Bohemians at Pfaff’s (“Untitled,” Current Literature 479). Newell and Menken married on September 24, 1862, but there was no happy ending for the couple: “Orpheus C. Kerr, for several years the most popular humorist of the times . . . unconsciously did the funniest thing of his life when he married the beautiful and seductive Adah Isaacs Menken, thinking that he could reform her. She proved false and faithless to him, as she had to half a dozen other men, but Kerr sincerely loved her, and the blow, which his own credulity brought him, was a cruel and lasting one” (“Untitled,” Current Literature 479). Menken divorced him in 1865, and Newell, unhappily, went on with his life, finding positions as the New York World, the Daily Graphic, and Hearth and Home (Leacock).

Newell stepped away from the world of journalism in 1876 and spent his remaining years in relative seclusion. During his life he published books--The Walking Doll, or the Asters and Disasters of Society (1872), There was once a Man (1884), The Cloven Foot--and two volumes of poetry--The Palace Beautiful and Other Poems (1865) and Versatilities (1871).

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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]

Newell was the editor of the New York Sunday Mercury. Attracted by the "vivacious" Menken, he began publishing her poetry in early 1860. According to Allen, Newell "strongly disliked Whitman's poems, but Adah Menken charmed him into printing her highly eulogistic review of the new Leaves of Grass on June 3" (262). [pages: 262]

Derby, J.C. Fifty Years among Authors, Books and Publishers. New York: G. W. Carleton and Co., 1884. [more about this work]

He is mentioned as one of the "brightest and most popular humorous men of the day," known to rally around the book store of George W. Carleton. Derby notes that "the noonday hour frequently found most of them at Pfaff's celebrated German restuarant, in a Broadway basement, near Bleecker-street, the rendezvous at that day of the so-called Bohemians." Derby notes that his pen name was "Orpheus C. Kerr" (239). [pages: 239]

Eytinge, Rose. The Memories of Rose Eytinge: Being Recollections & Observations of Men, Women, and Events, during Half a Century. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1905. [more about this work]

Eytinge refers to the recent death of Mr. Newell and mentions his pseudonym "Orpheus C. Kerr." She states that his death "reminds me of the only time I ever saw – or, what is really of more worth, heard – Adah Isaacs Menken" (Newell's wife). She proceeds to relate an anecdote about meeting Menken at her hairdresser's shop (310). [pages: 310]

"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." The blurb gives "updates" on the whereabouts of many of the former Bohemians.

"Orpehus C. Kerr, for several years the most popular humorist of the times--his keen and pungent satires on McClellan in the early days of the war made his name a household word--unconsciously did the funniest thing of his life when he married the beautiful and seductive Adah Isaacs Menken, thinking that he could reform her. She proved false and faithless to him, as she had to half a dozen other men, but Kerr sincerely loved her, and the blow, which his own credulity brought him, was a cruel and lasting one. He is now living quietly in Jersey City, and occasionally makes his appearance as a novelist before a public that has wholly forgotten that he was ever a professional fun-maker." [pages: 479]

Hahn, Emily. Romantic Rebels; An Informal History of Bohemianism in America. Boston; Houghton Mifflin, 1967. 318 p. [more about this work]

[pages: 23-24]

Haynes, John Edward. Pseudonyms of Authors: Including Anonyms and Initialisms. New York, 1882. [more about this work]

This text identifies the following pseudonym: Orpheus C. Kerr (71). [pages: 71]

Hyman, Martin D. "'Where the Drinkers & Laughers Meet': Pfaff's: Whitman's Literary Lair." Seaport. 26(1991): 56-61. [more about this work]

Hyman quotes Kerr: "the Mercury's editor, Robert Henry Newell, detested Whitman's poetry, but loved [Adah] Menken, and she was able to beguile the editor into running her tribute" (59). [pages: 59]

Kerr, Orpheus C. The Palace Beautiful, and Other Poems. New York: Carleton, 1864. [more about this work]

[pages: FP(.ill)]

Leacock, Stephen. "Robert Henry Newell." Dictionary of American Biography. Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale, 2006. http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC. [more about this work]

Lukens, Henry Clay. "American Literary Comedians." Harper's New Monthly Magazine. Apr. 1890: 783-797. [more about this work]

[pages: 783,794(ill.)]

Maurice, Arthur Bartlett. "Literary Clubland II: New York's Literary Clubs." The Bookman: A Review of Books and Life. Jun. 1905: 392-406. [more about this work]

He is described as one of the "others who rallied" at Pfaff's. His real name is given as Robert H. Newell. [pages: 396]

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

[pages: 139, 325, 335]