Arthur Henry Hallam Biography

Arthur Henry Hallam (1 February 1811 – 15 September 1833) was an English poet, best known as the subject of a major work, "In Memoriam A.H.H.", by his best friend and fellow poet, Alfred Tennyson. Hallam has been described as the jeune homme fatal (French for "fatal young man") of his generation.

Hallam was born in London, son of a historian, Henry Hallam. He attended school at Eton, where he met future British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone. They were good friends until Hallam left to travel in Italy and Gladstone matriculated at Oxford.

In October 1828, Hallam went up to Trinity College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, he met Tennyson. Both joined a group known as the Cambridge Apostles, and their shared interests led to a close friendship. Hallam published a review of Tennyson's 1830 work Poems, Chiefly Lyrical, and became engaged to Tennyson's sister, Emilia Tennyson, in 1832. While travelling abroad with his father, he died suddenly in Vienna of a brain hemorrhage in September 1833.

That Hallam's death was a significant influence on Tennyson's poetry is clear.Tennyson dedicated one of his greatest poems to Hallam (In Memoriam A.H.H.), and stated that the dramatic monologue "Ulysses" was "more written with the feeling of [Hallam's] loss upon me than many poems in [the publication] In Memoriam". Tennyson named his elder son after his late friend. Emilia Tennyson also named her elder son, Arthur Henry Hallam, in his honour.

Hallam is buried at St. Andrew's Church in Clevedon, Somerset.