Strangers to Us All Lawyers and Poetry

George Herbert Sass

(1845-1908)
South Carolina

"George Herbert Sass was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1845. He was educated at a private school kept by Messrs. Searle, Miles and Sachtleben, and later went to the College of Charleston, from which he was graduated in 1868. He received from his alma mater the degree of LL.D.

In 1883, he married Miss Annie E. Ravenel, a member of that well-known Carolina family living then in Charleston. They have two children, a son and daughter.

Mr. Sass has been contributing poems for some years to the leading periodicals, and is at present literary editor of the Sunday News and Courier. He has been a lawyer ever since his graduation, and for twenty-three years has held the office of Master in Equity for Charleston county." [Source: Mildred Lewis Rutherford, The South in History and Literature: A Hand-Book of Southern Authors—From the Settlement of Jamestown, 1607, to Living Writings 756-758, at 756 (Athens, Georgia: Franklin-Turner Co., 1907)(1906)]

Sass was born on December 24,1845 and died, at Charleston, South Carolina on February 10, 1908. "His entire life was spent in his native city." Sass graduated valedictorian of his class. He studied law for two years in the office of Charles Richardson Miles. Sass was appointed a Master in Equity, in 1883, an office in which he served throughout his life. The College of Charleston awarded Sass the LL.D. degree in 1902.

Sass wrote under the pen-name, Barton Grey. He "began to write verses during the civil war, and received a prize with one of his patriotic poems in a competition. Not long after his graduation he became attached to the literary staff of The News and Courier, and his . . . reports of lectures, dramatic criticisms, and book reviews were regarded among the most interesting features of its Sunday edition." [Source: George Armstrong Wauchope, The Writers of South Carolina: With a Critical Introduction, Biographical Sketches, and Selections in Prose and Verse 342 (Columbia, South Carolina: The State Co., Publishers, 1910)]

Poems

The Battle of Richmond

Poetry

Barton Grey, The Heart's Quest, a book of verse (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1904)(Barton Grey [pseud.]) [online text]

Addresses

G. Herbert Sass, Ideals of life. Baccalaureate address delivered before the graduating class of the South Carolina College, at Columbia, S.C. at the annual commencement on June,15th, 1898 (Charleston, South Carolina: Presses of Walker, Evans & Cogswell Co., 1898)

Research Resources

George Herbert Sass Papers
South Carolina Historical Society Library
Charleston, South Carolina

Manuscript Poems
William Ashmead Courtenay Collection
Charleston Library Society
Charleston, South Carolina