White, Byron Raymond, 1917-2002, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1962-93), b. Fort Collins, Colo. An All-America football player nicknamed "Whizzer" who later starred as a professional, White was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa at the Univ. of Colorado, from which he graduated as valedictorian in 1938. He then went to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar (1939-40), and received his law degree at Yale in 1946 after serving in the navy in World War II. White served (1946-47) as law clerk for Chief Justice Frederick Vinson before going to Denver to practice corporate law. He supported John F. Kennedy for the presidency in 1960, and was appointed deputy attorney general in 1961. In 1962, Kennedy named him to succeed Charles E. Whittaker on the Supreme Court. After President Nixon's conservative appointments to the court, White became known as a "swing" justice, generally voting with the liberals on civil-rights cases, but with the conservatives on personal liberty and criminal-justice issues. He was one of two justices to dissent from the Roe v. Wade (1973) abortion decision, and in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) he wrote a decision that upheld Georgia's sodomy statutes. White retired from the Court in 1993.

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, 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.

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.

(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.