Fitz-Greene Halleck (8 July 1790-19 December 1867), a Knickerbocker poet and man of letters, was born and died in Guilford, Connecticut. Halleck left Guilford at the age of twenty-one and entered into business in New York City. It was there that, in 1812, he met Joseph Rodman Drake, and they became instant friends. In 1819 Drake and Halleck began their famed collaboration as the "Croakers"; Drake was "Croaker," Halleck was "Croaker, Jr.," and together they were "Croaker and Company." They wrote satiric, light, and witty poems which were published in the Evening Post during 1819 and reprinted nationally, and both found great joy in what they deemed the literary life. Their anonymity was successfully maintained for a year, and when they revealed their identities to William Coleman, editor of the Post , he is supposed to have exclaimed, "My God, I had no idea that we had such talent in America." The popular satires...