Poet. Edward Coote Pinkney received acclaim as an American poet during the early nineteenth century. He was born in London while his father, William, was a lawyer serving as United States Ambassador to the British court. He was the seventh of ten children. His family returned to the United States when he was eight years old. At age 14, he joined the United States Navy and traveled to the Mediterranean, Africa, South America and other places. He resigned the navy in 1822, according to legend, he insulted a commodore. In 1823 he challenged author John Neal to a duel over a statement that Neal had published in a book about Pinkney's recently deceased father. Neal refused the fight, thus was called a coward. This ordeal was mentioned in Neal's next book. At one point, he attempted to join the Mexican Navy, but this adventure failed. He attended St. Mary's College of Maryland and became a lawyer in 1824, though it made him little money. He took a professorship at the University of Maryland but the job came without payment. In 1824, he married Georgiana McCausland, with whom he had a son. He turned to writing, publishing his first poem anonymously in 1825; his first collection of poems was published within a short time. Two years later, he became the editor of a newspaper, "Marylander," but died less than a year later due to tuberculosis. His poem, "A Health," achieved substantial fame and became a standard wine toast. Edgar Allan Poe used the poem as an example of well-written poetry in his critical essay "The Poetic Principle." Other well-known poems include "Serenade" and "Rudolph." Poet Nathaniel Parker Willis called him "a born poet" and noted "the world owes his memory a debt" for the poems he wrote. The American Literary Review noted he had a "highly poetical vein." Pinkney was originally buried in Baltimore's Unitarian Cemetery, but in May of 1872 his body was moved to Green Mount Cemetery.