Search >> Seymour, Charles Bailey (1829-1869)

Theater Critic, Essayist.

In 1849, Charles Bailey Seymour moved from London to New York City where he began working as the dramatic and musical editor for the New York Times. Winter asserts that he "had the good fortune of friendly companionship" with him and describes Seymour as having "an especially attractive personality" (Old Friends 310). Winter claims that it was not only Seymour’s talents as a critic and writer that "commended him to the liking of those sensitive persons, the singers and actors, of whom he wrote, and to the esteem of his fellow-workers in the press," but it was also his personality and manner that won him friends and respect. "His temperament was sweet and his life was gentle. He was simple and sincere. He took his part in the everyday work of life, and he did his best to make it worthy" (312).

While commenting on Seymour’s work at the Times, Winter notes that "[s]ome of the qualifications for such an office are learning, judgment, taste, sensibility, discernment, a kind heart, and the habit of incessant industry. Seymour possessed them and, during a period of fourteen years from 1855 to 1869, he recorded the movement of musical and dramatic art in New York, advocating right principles, fostering worthy endeavor, recognizing merit, and continuously exerting a good influence . . . Few writers have the equanimity and patience to use the critical faculty in a thoughtful, thorough, conscientious, impartial manner, and singers and actors are indeed fortunate who find themselves recognized in the press with an intelligent appreciation not less sympathetic and liberal than accurate and just" (Old Friends 310-311). Winter also observes that "Seymour was not content with appreciating artists for himself; he labored to interpret them to others. That service, fully performed, imparts a measure of permanence to those artistic achievements which, otherwise, are wholly ephemeral . . . That professional obligation Seymour always strove to meet, and therefore his writing was a benefit to his readers" (311-312).

Seymour published the book Self-Made Men in 1858. He also edited the New York Weekly Review with Theodore Hagen for a few months in 1865 and served as a correspondent for the Times in 1867 at the World Exposition in Paris. Seymour was one of Ada Clare’s many friends, which suggests that he was part of the coterie of Bohemians who routinely gathered at her 42nd Street home. Tice Miller describes Seymour as a regular at Pfaff’s who likely worked with Henry Clapp during his brief stint at the Weekly Review (38), and other sources place him at the bar, which suggests that he was at least a curious visitor to the Cave (Rawson 103, Browne 156, Literary 192). One historical source says that Seymour "was rather among the Bohemians than of them" (“Obituary” 7).

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References & Biographical Resources

Belphegor. "Dramatic Feuilleton." New York Saturday Press. 2 Dec. 1865: 280-281. [more about this work]

Belphegor remarks that "C.B.S." "has about recovered from his late accident, and next week will resume his charge of the Feuilleton" (281). [pages: 281]

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

Browne notes that at the time of his writing, Seymour is the dramatic critic at the Times.

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]

Figaro [Clapp, Henry Jr.]. "Dramatic Feuilleton." New York Saturday Press. 13 Jan. 1866: 24-25. [more about this work]

Figaro alludes to the fact that C.B.S. has been writing the column in his absence (24). [pages: 24]

Figaro [Clapp, Henry Jr.]. "Dramatic Feuilleton." New York Saturday Press. 6 Jan. 1866: 8-9. [more about this work]

Figaro thanks C.B.S. for keeping the column going in his absence (8). [pages: 8]

"Literary News." The Literary World. 1 May 1873: 189-192. [more about this work]

He is described as having "taken the road to dusty death." [pages: 192]

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. Seymour edited the New York Weekly Review, where Henry Clapp worked from January to July of 1865 (38). [pages: 16, 38, 128]

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

Clapp's "Obituary," mentions that "readers of The Times will remember our genial dramatic and musical writer, Charles B. Seymour, who was rather among the Bohemians than of them." [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]

Odell mentions a concert given in his memory June 12, 1869, with afternoon and evening performances at Steinway Hall. The concert appears to have been well cast with noted musicians. [pages: 522]

Quelqu'un [Winter, William]. "Dramatic Feuilleton." New York Saturday Press. 26 Mar. 1859: 2. [more about this work]

Quelqu'un reports that the checked the Times for "the anesthetic Seymour's" review of Brougham's new piece at the Bowery (2). [pages: 2]

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

A member of Clare 's coterie of Bohemians. [pages: 103]

Wilson, James Grant and John Fiske, eds. Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume V, Pickering-Sumter. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888. [more about this work]

[pages: 475]

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

Seymour was born in December 13, 1829, in London. He came to New York at the age of twenty and worked as a teacher. Seymour later became associated with the editorial staff of "The New York Times," which was started in 1850.

Winter met Seymour when Seymour was the paper's musical and dramatic reviewer (310).

Winter comments on Seymour's style of criticism (311-12).

Winter describes Seymour's personality (312).

Of Seymour's writing, Winter says: "Continuity of effort in composition had made him an exceptionally facile writer, so that his pen never halted, and in emergencies he was neither dazed nor perplexed. His style was clear and terse, and a glow of spontaneous mirth often played along the silver threads of his thought." Winter notes that most of Seymour's newspaper writings have been lost(312).

Seymour had worked as a correspondent for "The New York Times" during the Paris Exposition, in 1868. Seymour was recognized for his services as a member of the American Commission by the Emperor of France, who presented him with a medal (312-313).

Seymour was a member of a New York group of artists and writers that existed before the Pfaff's Bohemians that also included Gayler, North, Bellew, Charles G. Rosenberg, Eytinge, and O'Brien. Winter was not a member of this group; all of its members are dead at the time of Winter's writing. Winter states, "That society, unlike the Pfaff's coterie, was, after a fortuitous fashion, organized, and it had a name,--the remarkable name of the Ornithorhyncus Club." The club was named after a Duck-Billed Platypus (308).

Winter notes that one "memorial" to Seymour that "remains in something like a permanent form is the "volume of biography that he wrote, called 'Self-Made Men,' published in 1858" (313). [pages: 308,310-313]

[Clapp, Henry Jr. and Robert W. Pearsall]. "Waifs from Washington VII. Typ-orthography." New York Saturday Press. 21 Jan. 1860: 2. [more about this work]

Umos discusses Charley Seymour's abilities with Greek (2). [pages: 2]

"[Editorial Comments]." New York Saturday Press. 9 Dec. 1865: 297. [more about this work]