“Pretty Dreamer” It was written by Stephen Foster just before his death in 1864 at the age of 37. The song became one of his most famous and popular. However, as with the 200 or so other songs Foster wrote during his brief life, it did not receive the recognition or financial reward that he deserved.

Stephen Foster was America’s first great songwriter, but he died with 38 cents in a leather case and a piece of paper on which he had written some of the song’s lyrics, “dear friends and kind hearts.”

Stephen Collins Foster he was born near Pittsburgh on July 4, 1826, the same day that both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died. Foster died in 1864 when he suffered a fall in his house while weak from fever. The fall split his head open, and he died at Bellevue Hospital in New York shortly thereafter. Foster had been suffering from alcoholism for years before his accidental death.

Young Stephen was able to play tunes on the guitar at the age of two, and at ten he was performing popular comedy songs with local children. At 18, he wrote blackface minstrel songs that were the popular folk music of the day. At age 21 he composed the minstrel song, “Oh! Susanna,” which became a hit, sung, repeated, and whistled across the country. In fact, it became the unofficial anthem of the California Gold Rush two years later.

Music publishing was in its infancy. in those days and music recording didn’t even exist. Stephen Foster received no royalties or fees for the numerous releases or arrangements of “Oh! Susanna” over the ensuing years. In fact, he gave away the rights to the song and never received a penny for it.

Over the next ten years, Foster wrote many songs, including “The Swanee River (Old Folks at Home)”, “Camptown Races”, “Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair”, “Old Black Joe”, “Nelly Bly”, “Old Dog Tray” and “My Old Kentucky Home.” Stephen Foster made a bit of money selling his songs outright, some for as little as a dollar. His composition has been said to have fetched him around $20,000 during the roughly 15-year career of his songwriting.

In 1935 Florida adopted “The Swanee River” as the official state song, although Stephen Foster never visited Florida or saw the river. He chose “Swanee” because the two syllables fit the music he had written. Foster sold the copyright to “The Swanee River” to EPChristy of the “Christy Minstrels,” a blackface minstrel show troupe, a regrettable move.

The song became a popular international folk tune and is credited with starting the tourist industry in Florida. Beginning in the 1880s, millions of people traveled to Florida to see the famous North Florida River.

In 1928 Kentucky adopted “My Old Kentucky Home” as their official state song. In 1986, Kentucky changed the second line of the song, “‘Tis summer, the darkies are gay”; to “It’s summer, people are happy”; for obvious reasons.

Due to the popularity of “My Old Kentucky Home” and “The Swanee River,” many people are under the impression that Stephen Foster was a southern gentleman. He did, however, visit the South only once, a steamboat trip to New Orleans in 1852.

Stephen Foster spent his life mainly in Pennsylvania and New York. His father, William Foster Sr., spent many years in politics, working for President Harrison and winning two terms as mayor of Allegheny, Pennsylvania.

Before the Civil War, Stephen Foster helped James Buchanan become president by becoming the music director of the Buchanan Glee Club and by writing pieces of music for the campaign effort.

During the Civil War Stephen Foster wrote about 70 songs, mostly patriotic war songs that sold poorly. During the war, Foster’s alcoholism deteriorated his health until his death in poverty in 1864.

Two months after her death, Stephen Foster’s “Beautiful Dreamer” was published in New York.

pretty dreamer by Stephen Foster

Beautiful dreamer, wake me up

Starlight and dewdrops await you;

Sounds of the harsh world heard in the day,

Lulled to sleep by the moonlight, they are all dead!

Beautiful dreamer, queen of my song,

Listen as I woo you with soft melody;

Gone are the worries of life’s busy crowd, –

Beautiful dreamer, wake me up!

Beautiful dreamer, in the sea

The sirens sing the wild lorelie;

Over the brook the vapors are terminal,

Waiting to fade into the bright morning to come.

Beautiful dreamer, do in my heart,

Even as the morning over the brook and the sea;

Then all the clouds of pain will go away, —

Beautiful dreamer, wake me up!