Notes |
- Born on February 5, 1806, in New Castle, Delaware, Robert Montgomery Bird grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from medical school at the University of Pennsylvania in 1824. After practicing medicine for only a year, Bird turned his attention to a career in literature. Beginning his literary career at the Monthly Magazine of Philadelphia, Bird?s best known work, 1831?s The Gladiator, was produced on the stage by his good friend Edwin Forrest. Bird married Mary Mayer in 1837 and had a son, Frederick, just a year later. After writing other plays such as Orralloosa and The Broker of Bogota, Bird turned to writing novels, some of his better known works being Cavalar and Nick of the Woods. In the 1840s, Bird returned to medicine as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He later tried his hand in photography, yet another creative side, in the 1850s before dying on January 23, 1854.
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