Nelson, Byron (John Byron Nelson, Jr.), 1912-2006, American golfer, b. Fort Worth, Tex. In 1926 he began playing golf as a caddie, and in 1932 he entered upon his professional career. Noted for the perfection of his swing, "Lord Byron" won the the Masters Championship in 1937 and 1942, the U.S. National Open title in 1939, and the Professional Golfers Association championship in 1940 and 1945. In 1945 he also won 11 professional golf tournaments in a row, a record, and over his career—he played only part-time beginning in 1947—he tallied 52 PGA Tour victories.

Byron, George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron, 1788-1824, English poet and satirist.

Early Life and Works

He was the son of Capt. John ("Mad Jack") Byron and his second wife, Catherine Gordon of Gight. His father died in 1791, and Byron, born with a clubfoot, was subjected alternately to the excessive tenderness and violent temper of his mother. In 1798, after years of poverty, Byron succeeded to the title and took up residence at the family seat, Newstead Abbey. He subsequently attended Dulwich school and Harrow (1801-5) and then matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge. Although the academic atmosphere did nothing to lessen Byron's sensitivity about his lameness, he made several close friends while at school.

His first volume, Fugitive Pieces (1806), was suppressed; revised and expanded, it appeared in 1807 as Poems on Various Occasions. This was followed by Hours of Idleness (1807), which provoked such severe criticism from the Edinburgh Review that Byron replied with English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), a satire in heroic couplets reminiscent of Pope, which brought him immediate fame.

Byron left England the same year for a grand tour through Spain, Portugal, Italy, and the Balkans. He returned in 1811 with Cantos I and II of Childe Harold (1812), a melancholy, philosophic poem in Spenserian stanzas, which made him the social lion of London. It was followed by the verse tales The Giaour (1813), The Bride of Abydos (1813), The Corsair (1814), Lara (1814), The Siege of Corinth (1816), and Parisina (1816).

Byron's name at this time was linked with those of several women, notably Viscount Melbourne's wife, Lady Caroline Lamb. In Jan., 1815, he married Anne Isabella Milbanke, a serious, rather cold, young woman with whom he had little in common. She gave birth to a daughter, Augusta Ada, the following December. In 1816 she secured a separation. Although her reasons for such an action remain obscure, evidence indicates that she discovered the existence of an incestuous relationship between Byron and his half-sister, Mrs. Augusta Leigh. Although his many attachments to women are notorious, Byron was actually ambivalent toward women. There is considerable evidence that he also had several homosexual relationships.

Later Life and Works

In Apr., 1816, by then a social outcast, Byron left England, never to return. He passed some time with Shelley in Switzerland, writing Canto III of Childe Harold (1816) and The Prisoner of Chillon (1816). With the party was Shelley's sister-in-law, Claire Clairmont, who had practically forced Byron into a liaison before he left England, and who, in Jan., 1817, bore him a daughter, Allegra.

Settling in Venice (1817), Byron led for a time a life of dissipation, but produced Canto IV of Childe Harold (1818), Beppo (1818), and Mazeppa (1819) and began Don Juan. In 1819 he formed a liaison with the Countess Teresa Guiccioli, who remained his acknowledged mistress for the rest of his life. Byron was induced to interest himself in the cause of Greek independence from the Turks and sailed for Missolonghi, where he arrived in 1824. He worked unsparingly with Prince Alexander Mavrocordatos to unify the divergent Greek forces, but caught a fever and died the same year.

Assessment

Ranked with Shelley and Keats as one of the great Romantic poets, Byron became famous throughout Europe as the embodiment of romanticism. His good looks, his lameness, and his flamboyant lifestyle all contributed to the formation of the Byronic legend. By the mid-20th cent. his reputation as a poet had been eclipsed by growing critical recognition of his talents as a wit and satirist.

Byron's poetry covers a wide range. In English Bards and Scotch Reviewers and in The Vision of Judgment (1822) he wrote 18th-century satire. He also created the "Byronic hero," who appears consummately in the Faustian tragedy Manfred (1817)—a mysterious, lonely, defiant figure whose past hides some great crime. Cain (1821) raised a storm of abuse for its skeptical attitude toward religion. The verse tale Beppo is in the ottava rima (eight-line stanzas in iambic pentameter) that Byron later used for his acknowledged masterpiece Don Juan (1819-24), an epic-satire combining Byron's art as a storyteller, his lyricism, his cynicism, and his detestation of convention.

Byron, John, 1723-86, British vice admiral and explorer. Sailing in 1740 with Admiral George Anson on a voyage around the world, he was shipwrecked off Chile. His Narrative of Great Distresses on the Shores of Patagonia (1768) is said to have been used by his grandson, the poet George Gordon, Lord Byron, in writing Don Juan.

(born June 8, 1917, Fort Collins, Colo., U.S.—died April 15, 2002, Denver, Colo.) U.S. jurist. An accomplished athlete, he played football with the Pittsburgh Pirates (now Steelers) and the Detroit Lions. He attended the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar before studying law at Yale. White clerked for Fred M. Vinson and later practiced corporate law in Colorado. In 1961 he was named deputy U.S. attorney general by Pres. John F. Kennedy, and the following year he was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. His opinions and votes on the court were generally moderate to conservative. He retired in 1993.

Learn more about White, Byron R(aymond) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Feb. 4, 1912, near Waxahachie, Texas, U.S.—died Sept. 26, 2006, Roanoke, Texas) U.S. golfer. Lord Byron, as he was known to the golf world, began his career as a caddie at age 12 and became a professional golfer in 1932. He won the U.S. Open (1939), the Masters Tournament (1937, 1942), and the PGA Championship (1940, 1945), setting records in 1945 when he won 18 out of 30 tournaments, 11 in succession.

Learn more about Nelson, (John) Byron with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born May 10, 1916, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) U.S. composer. At Princeton University he studied with composer Roger Sessions and later joined the faculty. He became one of the first U.S. 12-tone composers, and he was (with his Three Compositions for Piano, 1947) perhaps the first composer to write totally serialized music based on ordered structures not only of pitch but of elements such as rhythm and dynamics. Working with RCA's Mark II synthesizer from 1957 to 1975, he became one of the first Americans to write electronically synthesized music. His music was considered difficult to perform but also good-humoured and playful.

Learn more about Babbitt, Milton (Byron) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Feb. 8, 1931, Marion, Ind., U.S.—died Sept. 30, 1955, near Paso Robles, Calif.) U.S. film actor. He played bit parts in four films before trying the Broadway stage, where his role in The Immoralist (1954) led to a screen test and a brilliant though brief movie career. His starring role in East of Eden (1955) brought him an Academy Award nomination. As a misunderstood teenager in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) he personified the confused and restless youth of the 1950s. He was featured as a nonconformist ranch hand in his last film, Giant (1956). His death at age 24 in an automobile crash caused anguish among his fans and contributed to his idolization as a cult figure.

Learn more about Dean, James (Byron) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Feb. 8, 1931, Marion, Ind., U.S.—died Sept. 30, 1955, near Paso Robles, Calif.) U.S. film actor. He played bit parts in four films before trying the Broadway stage, where his role in The Immoralist (1954) led to a screen test and a brilliant though brief movie career. His starring role in East of Eden (1955) brought him an Academy Award nomination. As a misunderstood teenager in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) he personified the confused and restless youth of the 1950s. He was featured as a nonconformist ranch hand in his last film, Giant (1956). His death at age 24 in an automobile crash caused anguish among his fans and contributed to his idolization as a cult figure.

Learn more about Dean, James (Byron) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born June 8, 1917, Fort Collins, Colo., U.S.—died April 15, 2002, Denver, Colo.) U.S. jurist. An accomplished athlete, he played football with the Pittsburgh Pirates (now Steelers) and the Detroit Lions. He attended the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar before studying law at Yale. White clerked for Fred M. Vinson and later practiced corporate law in Colorado. In 1961 he was named deputy U.S. attorney general by Pres. John F. Kennedy, and the following year he was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. His opinions and votes on the court were generally moderate to conservative. He retired in 1993.

Learn more about White, Byron R(aymond) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born May 10, 1916, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) U.S. composer. At Princeton University he studied with composer Roger Sessions and later joined the faculty. He became one of the first U.S. 12-tone composers, and he was (with his Three Compositions for Piano, 1947) perhaps the first composer to write totally serialized music based on ordered structures not only of pitch but of elements such as rhythm and dynamics. Working with RCA's Mark II synthesizer from 1957 to 1975, he became one of the first Americans to write electronically synthesized music. His music was considered difficult to perform but also good-humoured and playful.

Learn more about Babbitt, Milton (Byron) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Byron is a census-designated place (CDP) in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 916 at the 2000 census.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 2.5 square miles (6.6 km²), all of it land.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 916 people, 286 households, and 203 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 360.1 people per square mile (139.2/km²). There were 309 housing units at an average density of 121.5/sq mi (47.0/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 75.00% White, 4.37% Black or African American, 1.09% Native American, 2.18% Asian, 0.44% Pacific Islander, 14.74% from other races, and 2.18% from two or more races. 25.87% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 286 households out of which 36.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.8% were married couples living together, 11.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.7% were non-families. 22.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.85 and the average family size was 3.36.

In the CDP the population was spread out with 35.0% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 28.2% from 25 to 44, 18.8% from 45 to 64, and 9.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females there were 129.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 105.2 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $35,938, and the median income for a family was $44,306. Males had a median income of $42,639 versus $28,889 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $21,231. About 15.6% of families and 14.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 33.3% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

Byron Hot Springs

Byron, California is also home to the somewhat well-known and historical Byron Hot Springs, a now-abandoned resort which was a retreat that attracted many movie stars and famous athletes in the early 1900's. The first hotel was built in 1889 and was a three-story wood building, with a few cottages scattered nearby, as well as a laundry, gas plant and ice plant, all of which were destroyed by fire on July 25, 1901. A second hotel, also three stories, but made of stucco was constructed 1901-1902, but it burned in 1912. The third and final hotel, a four-story brick structure was built in 1913 and still stands. In 1938 the resort closed, due to a series of lawsuits, probably brought about by the Great Depression, but was leased by the government in 1941 and became a military interrogation camp housing both German and Japanese prisoners of war, known as Camp Tracy, until 1945, when orders were sent to dismantle it. In 1946 the Byron Hot Springs property was put up for sale and purchased by the Greek Orthodox Church for a sum of $105,000. It served as the Monastery St. Paul for several years. It then changed hands several times both as a resort, country club and private residence. It is currently privately owned. As with each new owner, plans have materialized to rebuild Byron Hot Springs, as stated at byronhotsprings.com, but recent visits have shown no progress, likely due to high costs regarding restoration. In 2005, a Victorian-era carriage house on the property was burned to the ground. The hotel itself sustained some fire damage, but still stands.

Transportation

Byron Airport

In 1993 Contra Costa County broke ground on a new airport two miles south of Byron. On October 8, 1994, Byron Airport was dedicated. The new airport has 1307 acres of land. 814 acres are reserved for Habitat Management Land for the San Joaquin Kit Fox, a federally listed endangered species, as well as many other endangered and special status species.

Bus

There is limited bus service to Byron by Tri-Delta Transit's route 386, that connects the community and Discovery Bay with the Brentwood Park and Ride Lot where passengers may transfer to buses connecting to other cities in the region in addition to Pittsburg/Bay Point (BART station) and Brentwood Dimes-A-Ride transit.

External links

• Reclamation District 800
• Byron Hot Springs

References