Grenville Mellen

(Born: June 19, 1799 - Died: September 5, 1841)

American lawyer, poet and author. He was born in Biddeford, ME, the third child of Prentice and Mellen and Sarah Hudson. He married Mary K. Southgate on September 9, 1824. Like his father, Grenville Mellen attended Harvard University, graduating in 1818. Although he had studied for the law, he found the profession not to be to his liking. Instead, he turned to literary pursuits, beginning about 1826. Having suffered poor health for much of his life, he became more seriously ill about 1840, and travelled to Cuba, as many people did at the time for health reasons due to the mild climate. Failing to find relief, however, and having heard of the death of his father, he returned to New York, where he himself died. His remains were transported to Portland, ME and were buried in Western Cemetery. Rufus W. Griswold described Mellen personally as “a gentle-hearted, amiable man, social in his feelings, and patient and resigned in the long period of physical suffering which preceded his death,” and his poetry as “often dreamy, mystic, and unintelligible,” with “no evidence of creative genius; no original, clear, and manly thought; no spirited and natural descriptions of life or nature; no humour, no pathos, no passion; nothing that appeals to the common sympathies of mankind.”