Thomas Holley Chivers (1809 - 1858)

Thomas Holley Chivers

Thomas Holley Chivers was an American physician and poet of the first half of the 19th century.

Chivers earned a medical degree from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, but rarely practiced medicine. After receiving an inheritance, he was able to live freely and travel. In the early 1830s he traveled extensively throughout the western frontier and the North. He became fascinated with Transcendentalist philosophy as well as slave poetry. A number of Cheevers's poems and plays reflected his ideological views on American Indians and their plight, inspired in part by his interactions with the Cherokee during his frontier wanderings.

During his lifetime, Chivers published eleven volumes of poems, plays, and pamphlets. He also collaborated with the leading literary periodicals and newspapers of the antebellum era, notably the Georgia Citizen, and wrote a biography of Edgar Allan Poe, his friend and soulmate. Nevertheless, the eccentric writer never achieved the critical acclaim he craved all his life.

The friendship between Chivers and Edgar Allan Poe was based on a mutual fascination with metaphysical speculation, as well as on shared literary interests. However, the close cooperation of the two poets was accompanied by a sharp rivalry, in addition, each of them began to consider the artistic borrowings of the other plagiarized. By and large, Chivers is known only for his association with Edgar Poe.