Wikipedia

Lillian Bayard Taylor Kiliani

Lillian Bayard Taylor Kiliani (August 3, 1858 – October 10, 1940), also seen as Lilian Bayard Taylor, was a German-American poet, translator, and anti-suffragist.

Lillian Bayard Taylor Kiliani
Born
Lillian Bayard Taylor

(1858-08-03)August 3, 1858
Gotha, Germany
DiedOctober 10, 1940(1940-10-10) (aged 82)
Bavaria, Germany
Other namesLilian Bayard Taylor, Mrs. Otto G. T. Kiliani
EducationAnna C. Brackett's School

Vassar College

Art Students League of New York
Occupation(s)Poet, translator, anti-suffragist
Years active1880s–1930s
Known forAnti-suffragist activism, German-American cultural exchange
Notable workOn Two Continents: Memories of Half A Century (1905)

A Sheaf of Poems (1911)

"Women's Rights and Women's Work" (1912)
Spouse
Otto George Theobald Kiliani
​
​
(m. 1887)​
Children2, including Richard Bayard Taylor Kiliani
ParentBayard Taylor (father) Marie Hansen-Taylor (mother)
RelativesPeter Andreas Hansen (maternal grandfather) Charles Frederick Taylor (paternal uncle)

Early life and education

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Killant was born in Gotha, Germany, the daughter of Bayard Taylor and Marie Hansen-Taylor [de]. Her father was an American writer and diplomat; her mother was born in Germany, the daughter of astronomer Peter Andreas Hansen.[1] Killant attended Anna C. Brackett's School in New York City, and Vassar College, as well as several schools in Germany.[2] She also studied art with the Art Students League of New York, and in Berlin.[3]

Career

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Killant wrote and translated poetry and other texts,[4] including a German translation of Hamlet for Edwin Booth in the 1880s.[5] She was active in several German women's organizations,[6] including a stint as president of the German Governesses' Home Association.[2] She was international secretary of the New York State Association Opposed to Woman's Suffrage,[7][8] and an honorary member of the organization's British equivalent.[2] She visited England in 1909, and reported back to American newspapers that there was "no hope in England for woman suffrage."[9]

Writing from Germany, March 14, 1915, she states:

The women are doing a noble, womanly work in a womanly way, and perhaps the war may serve to show many of them how much more important it is than to try to do the man's work. In times like this, the men on the battlefield and the women at home are proving best how each should do his and her appointed part of the world's work.[10]

Publications

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  • On Two Continents: Memories of Half A Century (1905, with Marie Hansen Taylor)[11]
  • A Sheaf of Poems (1911, her father's translations of German poetry, interspersed with her own translations of the same poems)[12][13]
  • "Women's Rights and Women's Work" (1912)[14]

Personal life and legacy

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Killant married German surgeon and medical school professor Otto George Theobald Kiliani in 1887.[15] They had a son, Richard, born in 1888, and a daughter, Gladys, who died in childhood.[2] During World War I, her husband served as a surgeon in the German army's medical corps, and their son Richard served in an American regiment.[1] Her mother, who moved back to Germany in 1915[1][16] and lived with the Kilianis in Bavaria, died in 1925;[17] her husband died in 1928,[18] and her son died in 1934.[19] She died in 1940, at the age of 83, in Germany.[20] Some of her letters and journals are in the Marie Hansen Taylor papers at Stanford University.[21] In 1925, she donated some of her father's papers to Yale University.[17]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Mrs. Bayard Taylor Abandons America; Eighty-six-Year-Old Widow Author-Diplomat Returns to Germany Today; Dislikes Our Attitude; Dr. Otto Kiliani, Her Son-in-law, Is Serving Her Native Land in the Medical Corps". The New York Times. 1915-07-24. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
  2. ^ a b c d Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. American commonwealth Company. 1914. p. 455.
  3. ^ Singer, Sandra L. (2003-04-30). Adventures Abroad: North American Women at German-Speaking Universities, 1868-1915. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 231–232, note 52. ISBN 978-0-313-32371-3.
  4. ^ "Barbarossa, translated by Bayard Taylor and Lilian Bayard Taylor Kiliani" Viereck's 10(6)(August 1919): 172.
  5. ^ Watermeier, Daniel J. (2015-03-08). Between Actor and Critic: Selected Letters of Edwin Booth and William Winter. Princeton University Press. p. 220. ISBN 978-1-4008-7167-4.
  6. ^ "Good Showing by German Women; Exhibition of Their Importance in Business and in Home Opens in Berlin". Chicago Tribune. 1912-03-17. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-07-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "'Antis' Take Stock; Review the Year's Work and Are of Good Cheer". New-York Tribune. 1910-01-30. p. 49. Retrieved 2023-07-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Badges for Women Who Want No Vote; Anti-Suffragists Will Adopt Pin for Emblem and Have Colors Also". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
  9. ^ "Mrs. Kiliani on Suffrage; Sees No Hope of Votes for Women in England". New-York Tribune. 1909-10-23. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-07-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Hudson Columbia Republican. (1915, June 11). Page 7. Retrieved from https://access-newspaperarchive-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/us/new-york/hudson/hudson-columbia-republican/1915/06-11/page-7
  11. ^ Taylor, Marie Hansen; Kiliani, Lilian Bayard Taylor (1905). On Two Continents: Memories of Half a Century. Doubleday, Page.
  12. ^ Killiani, Mrs Lillian Bayard Taylor (1911). A Sheaf of Poems. R. G. Badger.
  13. ^ Krumpelmann, John T. (2019-03-18). Bayard Taylor and German letters. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 29. ISBN 978-3-11-132621-4.
  14. ^ Kiliani, LIlian Bayard Taylor (1912-11-29). "Women's Rights and Women's Work". New-York Tribune. p. 11. Retrieved 2023-07-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Bayard Taylor's Daughter's Engagement". The Hazleton Sentinel. 1887-05-09. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-07-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Bayard Taylor's Widow (L. M.)". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1925-01-19. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-07-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ a b "Bayard Taylor's Daughter Donates Poems to Yale; Manuscripts of 17 Works in German are Turned Over". The Bridgeport Telegram. 1925-11-25. p. 11. Retrieved 2023-07-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Dr. Otto G.T. Kiliani; Former Surgery Professor at Columbia Dead in Bavaria". The New York Times. 1928-06-13. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
  19. ^ "Dies in Germany". The News Journal. 1934-11-17. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-07-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "Kin of Bayard Taylor Dies". The Morning News. 1940-11-01. p. 31. Retrieved 2023-07-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ "Guide to the Marie Hansen Taylor Papers, 1848-1927 M0603". Online Archive of California. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
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