Linn, John Blair 1777-1804

John Blair Linn (1777-1804), a Presbyterian minister like his father William Linn, J.B. Linn was educated at Columbia (B.A. 1795, M.A. 1797) and Union College (M.A. 1797). A prolific writer, Linn published five volumes of poetry and three of theological prose, and had a play produced in New York, all in the space of a decade.



Annals of the American Pulpit, Volume 4 - 1860 (page 210)

A Sketch of the Life and Character of John Blair Linn (here)

Biographical Sketch: The Port folio (1817) By Joseph Dennie, Asbury Dickins (see page 21,continued on page 129, further continued on page 195)

Cyclopaedia of American Literature: Volume 1 (1856) By Evert Augustus Duyckinck, George Long Duyckinck (see page 652 for entry on John Blair Linn)

Title: Miscellaneous Works, Prose and Poetical. By a young gentleman of New-York, etc. By J. B. Linn
Author: John Blair LINN
Publisher: Thomas Greenleaf, 1795
Length: 353 pages


1797
Bourville Castle. A drama written during Linn's first year as a law student and revised by fellow authors Charles Brockden Brown and William Dunlap. Brown would say of the play, "Its success was such as had been sufficient to have fixed the literary destiny of some minds."
1800
The Death of Washington: A Poem, in Imitation of the Manner of Ossian. Linn's book-length elegy draws criticism for its treatment of the American national hero in the mystical style of the Celtic bard.
(John Blair Linn. The Death of Washington. A poem. In Imitation of the Manner of Ossian. Philadelphia: Printed by John Ormrod, 1800. John B. Linn (1777-1804), a minister of Philadelphia's First Presbyterian Church, wrote this poem in the Ossianic epic poetry tradition. Named after a legendary third-century Irish warrior-poet, and revived by the Scottish poet James Macpherson in the 1760s, this style of poetry was popular among the elite of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.)
1801
The Powers of Genius. A popular poem consisting of heroic couplets in three parts, which describe genius and writers who attained it.
1803
A Sermon on the Death of Dr. Ewing (the pastor that J. B. Linn assisted)
1803
A Reply to Dr. Priestley's "Jesus and Socrates Compared"
1805
Valerian. An epic poem about the persecution of early Christians and the impact of Christianity on the "Manners of Nations." Although intended to be his masterpiece, Linn had died of tuberculosis before finishing it. It is published posthumously with an introduction by his brother-in-law, Charles Brockden Brown.

The powers of genius: a poem, in three parts (1802) By John Blair Linn

Valerian, a narrative poem: intended, in part, to describe, the early Persecutions of Christians, and Rapidly to Illustrate the Influence of Christianity on the Manners of Nations (with a Sketch of the Life and Character of the Author) - 1805 - By John Blair Linn, Charles Brockden Brown