John B. Tabb

Father John Banister Tabb[lower-alpha 1] (March 22, 1845 – November 19, 1909) was an American poet, Roman Catholic priest, and professor of English.

John B. Tabb
Rev. John B. Tabb, the poet-priest
Born
John Banister Tabb

(1845-03-22)March 22, 1845
Amelia County, Virginia
DiedNovember 19, 1909(1909-11-19) (aged 64)
Ellicott City, Maryland
Occupation(s)Priest, poet, professor
RelativesWilliam Barksdale Tabb (brother)
Signature

Biography

Tabb was born in Amelia County, Virginia, on March 22, 1845.[1] One of his brothers was William Barksdale Tabb, a lawyer and officer in the Confederate States Army.[2]

A member of one of the state's oldest and wealthiest families, Tabb served on a blockade runner for the Confederacy during the Civil War, and spent eight months in a Union prison camp, where he formed a lifelong friendship with poet Sidney Lanier. Tabb converted to the Roman Catholic Church in 1872, and taught literature at Saint Charles College in Ellicott City, Maryland, in 1878.[3]

Tabb was ordained as a priest in 1884, after which he retained his academic position. Plagued by eye problems his whole life, he continued to teach though he lost his sight completely about a year before his death.[4] He died at Saint Charles College on November 19, 1909.[5]

Father Tabb (as he was commonly known) was widely published in popular and prestigious magazines of the day, including Harper's Monthly, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Cosmopolitan. His books of poetry include Poems (1894), Lyrics (1897), Later Lyrics (1902), and, posthumously, Later Poems (1910). He also wrote one prose work, Bone Rules (1897), an English grammar; only one of his sermons has survived, a sermon on the Assumption (August 15, 1894).

John B. Tabb in June 1895 edition of The Bookman (New York City)

English poet Alice Meynell made A Selection from the Verses of John B. Tabb (1906). His biographer, Francis A. Litz, a former student of Tabb's, published previously uncollected poems and previously unpublished poems in Father Tabb: A Study of His Life and Works (1923); Litz also edited a collected edition, The Poetry of Father Tabb (1928). A literary biography of him was published by a Catholic sister who was also a well-known writer, Mary Paulina Finn, V. H. M., who published as M. S. Pine.[6]

The Tabb Monument in Amelia County is dedicated to his memory.[7]

Portrait of Tabb from The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume XIII, 1906

Notes
  1. Although often misspelled as "Bannister", the poet's middle name is spelled with a single 'n' as "Banister".

References
  1. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. XIII. James T. White & Company. 1906. pp. 249–250. Retrieved August 20, 2020 – via Google Books.
  2. "The Tabb Family in the United States: Thomas Yelverton Tabb". tabbfamilyhistory.com. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
  3. "IV. The New South: Lanier. § 15. Tabb.". The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. Vol. XVI.
  4. Duggan, Thomas (1912). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. pp. Vol. 14. Retrieved February 29, 2016.
  5. "Father Tabb is Dead". The Baltimore Sun. November 20, 1909. p. 16. Retrieved August 20, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Pine, M. S. (1915). John Bannister Tabb: The Priest-Poet. Washington, DC: Georgetown Visitation Monastery.
  7. "The Tabb Monument". virginia.gov. Retrieved June 5, 2022.

Further reading
  • Litz, Francis A. Father Tabb: A Study of His Life and Works. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1923).
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