Poet and Author
Humphreys enjoyed writing and had a voluminous correspondence with Washington, now in the Library of Congress. He also wrote for the public and was the author of a "Life of General Israel Putnam," whose staff he served on. He was one of the writers called the Hartford Wits (the others were Joel Barlow, Timothy Dwight IV, John Trumbull and Lemuel Hopkins). In 1802, he wrote an anti-slavery poem entitled "A Poem on the Industry of the United States of America."
He also served again as a member of the Connecticut state house of representatives, from 1812 to 1814. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in June 1807
Read more about this topic: David Humphreys (soldier)
Famous quotes containing the words poet and/or author:
“It is an odd jealousy: but the poet finds himself not near enough to his object. The pine-tree, the river, the bank of flowers before him, does not seem to be nature. Nature is still elsewhere.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Th’ increasing prospect tires our wand’ring eyes.
Hills peep o’er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!
A perfect Judge will read each work of Wit
With the same spirit that its author writ:
Survey the Whole, nor seek slight faults to find
Where nature moves, and rapture warms the mind;”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)