Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Messinger, Robert Hinckley

MESSINGER, Robert Hinckley, poet, b. in Boston, Mass., in 1811; d. in Stamford, Conn., 1 Oct., 1874. He was educated in the Boston Latin-school, and entered mercantile life in New York city, where he resided many years. His poems were written between 1827 and 1832, and appeared in the New York “American.” The principal one, “Give me the Old,” suggested by the famous saying of Alphonso of Castile, “Old wine to drink, old wood to burn, old books to read, and old friends to converse with,” was published in that journal on 26 April, 1838. It may be found in Griswold's “Poets and Poetry of America” (Philadelphia, 1842). Mr. Messinger, who was a friend of Fitz-Greene Halleck, subsequently resided in New London, N. H.