Philip Freneau

About

Poet and author whose acquaintance with James Madison secured his position as editor of The National Gazette. His influential poems include "The House of Night" and "The Wild Honey Suckle."

Before Fame

While attending Princeton University, he co-wrote a satire entitled Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca.

Trivia

His poem "The House of Night" contains Gothic elements and was among the first American romantic poems.

Family Life

He grew up in New Jersey as the son of a French father and a Scottish mother. He married Eleanor Forman in 1790.

Associated With

His nature poem, "The Wild Honey Suckle," served as inspiration for Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist authors.