Brian Hooker (poet)
Brian Hooker | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | William Brian Hooker November 2, 1880 |
| Died | December 28, 1946 (aged 66) New London, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Education | Yale University |
| Occupations |
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| Known for | Cyrano de Bergerac (1923 translation) The Vagabond King (1925) |
| Spouse | Doris Redfield Cooper[1] |
| Children | 3 daughters |
| Parent(s) | Elizabeth Work William Augustus Hooker |
| Relatives | Thomas Hooker (1586–1647) |
William Brian Hooker (November 2, 1880 – December 28, 1946) was an American poet, educator, lyricist, and librettist. He was born in New York City, the son of Elizabeth Work and William Augustus Hooker, who was a mining engineer for the New York firm of Hooker and Lawrence. His family was well known in Hartford, Connecticut having descended from Thomas Hooker, a prominent Puritan religious and colonial leader who founded the Colony of Connecticut.[2]
Hooker attended Yale College in the class of 1902, where he was a writer,[3] editor and business manager for campus humor magazine The Yale Record.[4] He was an editor of The Yale Record collection Yale Fun (1901).[5] He died in New London, Connecticut, aged 66.
Works
[edit]
Hooker published the novel The Right Man, illustrated by Alonzo Myron Kimball, in 1908.[6] His poetry was published in The Century Magazine, The Forum, Hampton's Magazine, Harper's Magazine, McClure's Magazine, Scribner's Magazine, The Smart Set, and The Yale Review.[7]
Hooker wrote the librettos for two operas by Horatio Parker, Mona (opera)[8] and Fairyland.[9] He co-wrote the libretto and lyrics for Rudolf Friml's 1925 operetta The Vagabond King, and is noted for his 1923 English translation of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac.
References
[edit]- ^ "Brian Hooker Dies; Noted For Cyrano", The New York Times, December 29, 1946, p. 37.
- ^ Hooker, Edward; Hooker, Margaret Huntington (1909). "The Descendants of Rev. Thomas Hooker, Hartford, Connecticut, 1586–1908 : being an account of what is known of Rev. Thomas Hooker's family in England". Rochester, New York: Margaret Huntington Hooker – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Bronson, Francis W., Thomas Caldecott Chubb, and Cyril Hume, eds. (1922) The Yale Record Book of Verse: 1872–1922. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 13–14, 54–57.
- ^ "William Brian Hooker". Obituary Record of Graduates Of Yale University: Deceased During the Year 1946–1947. New Haven: Yale University. January 1, 1948. p. 63.
- ^ Hastings, Wells, Brian Hooker, and Henry Ely, eds. (1901) Yale Fun. New Haven: The Yale Record. p. 1.
- ^ "The Right Man" by Brian Hooker; illustrations by Alonzo Kimball, catalogue record at HathiTrust; Online at the Internet Archive
- ^ Poems, Yale University Press 1915, p. iv.
- ^ Meneer, Nathanael (November 30, 2012). Horatio Parker's Mona: an experiment in American grand opera (M.A. thesis). Boston University. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
- ^ Parker, Horatio W.; Hooker, Brian (November 30, 1915). "Fairyland: an opera in three acts". G. Schirmer.
Further reading
[edit]- Green, Stanley (1976), Encyclopaedia of the Musical Theatre, Dodd, Mead, p. 195. ISBN 0-396-07221-6
- Yardley, Jonathan (2005) "Cyrano, Gaining in the Translation", The Washington Post, February 2, 2005, p. C01. Accessed July 10, 2025.
