Biographical Sketch
Sidney Lanier was born in Macon, Georgia, on February 3, 1842, son of Robert Sampson Lanier and Mary Jane Anderson Lanier. He attended Oglethorpe University located in Midway, Georgia, gradu- ated at age 17 and taught several years at that university, volunteered in the Confederate Army, was in the 2nd Georgia Bat- talion which included the Macon Volunteers, served on a blockade runner as a signal officer, and was captured in 1864.
He spent five months in a federal prison at Point Lookout, Maryland, and there contracted tuberculosis from which he never recovered. He was exchanged after the war, returned to Macon, taught school briefly, and later in 1865 went to Montgomery, Alabama, to work as a clerk for his grandfather in the Exchange Hotel. During the years 1865-1867, when Lanier worked as a desk clerk, he began writing his first novel, Tiger Lilies. During that time, he also studied law and was admitted to the Alabama Bar. It is said, however, that his heart was not in practicing law. He was a lover of music, and he excelled not only as a flute player, but he also played with much success the banjo, guitar, violin and the organ. While a resident of Montgomery he was organist at the First Presbyterian Church. He played the wedding march at the December 20, 1866, wedding of Georgena Bird to Thomas Goode Jones. Jones later was elected governor of Alabarna, 1890-1894.
Eventually Sidney Lanier moved to Prattville, Alabama, where he was a teacher and served as principal of a school. While he lived in Prattville he married a Miss Mary Day of Macon.
In the Spring of 1867, he travelled to New York to attempt to get his book, Tiger Lilies, published.
He left Prattville with his family in 1869 and returned to Macon where he began to practice law until 1873. His health gradually deteriorated; he travelled to various parts of the country seeking relief in different climates, and even rented a house and resided at Point Clear for a brief period. During these years his reputation as a poet was secured and his fame spread throughout the country.
Settling in Baltimore in 1873, Lanier became the first flutist of the Peabody Symphony Orchestra of Baltimore, and in 1879 he was appointed lecturer in English literature at Johns Hopkins University. During this period he wrote poetry, fiction and criticism. His works include his novel Tiger Lilies, and his poems include The Marshes of Glynn, Song of the Chattahoochee, Sunrise, A Ballad of Trees and the Master, Corn, Mocking Bird, and Evening Song. He also wrote musical compositions for the flute: Music for Three Flutes, Little Ella, Windsong, and Dance des Mouches.
As noted in the Montgomery Daily Advertiser of September 11, 1881, Sidney Lanier died in Asheville, North Carolina, on September 7, 1881. He left a wife and two children. Relatives in Montgomery included his brother, Clifford Lanier, and his niece, Mrs. John Tilley, daughter of Clifford Lanier. To this day generations of Laniers still reside in Montgomery.
In February, 1940, a bronze memorial tablet was placed in the First Presbyterian Church of Montgomery, where he had served as organist. It can be seen on the left wall of the sanctuary. It was placed there by the Dixie Chapter of the UDC.
In March 1940, a tablet commemorating Lanier and his residence in Montgomery was installed in the lobby of the Exchange Hotel, where he had served as clerk. It was placed there by the Sophie Bibb Chapter of the UDC. The Exchange Hotel was demolished in Montgomery in 1974 to make way for the construction of the Colonial Bank building. Although a memorial tablet to the old Exchange Hotel is on the right wall of the lobby which is entered from Montgomery Street, the memorial tablet to Sidney Lanier is not there.
Sidney Lanier was for a period of two years a resident of Montgomery. His flute is in the collection of artifacts in storage at the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
The Montgomery County Historical Society
512 South Court Street, P. O. Box 1829
Montgomery, Alabama, 36102
Telephone 334-264-1837, Fax 334-834-9292
E-Mail: info@montgomeryhistorical.com
