George Long Duyckinck was a New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 writer.

Biography

He was the brother of Evert Augustus Duyckinck

Evert Augustus Duyckinck

Evert Augustus Duyckinck was an American publisher and biographer. He was associated with the literary side of the Young America movement in New York.-Life and work:...

 and attended Geneva College

Geneva College

Geneva College is a Christian liberal arts college in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, United States, north of Pittsburgh. Founded in 1848, in Northwood, Ohio, the college moved to its present location in 1880, where it continues to educate a student body of about 1400 traditional undergraduates in...

 entered the New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

, and graduated in 1843. He studied law and was admitted to the bar, but never practiced. After the completion of his legal studies he traveled extensively in Europe in 1847–1848, and on his return became joint editor with his brother Evert of The Literary World, afterward becoming joint author with his brother of the Cyclopaedia of American Literature. He then revisited Europe, and, on his return in 1857, entered on a separate career of authorship in a congenial department. During the 1850s, the Duyckinck brothers were the unofficial heads of the New York literary scene.

He was by early training and long-established choice warmly attached to the liturgy and order of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and especially interested in its biographical literature. To this he devoted himself, and, having been elected treasurer of the Sunday School union and Church book society, he began a series of biographies of English clergymen, with a view to attract the interest of American readers. The first of these was the "Life of George Herbert" (New York, 1858), followed by the lives of Bishop Thomas Ken (1859), Jeremy Taylor (1860), and Hugh Latimer (1861). These memoirs were condensed to a simple narrative; but they are regarded as contributions of high value. Duyckinck contemplated writing the life of Bishop Leighton, but before entering on its preparation he was seized with the illness that terminated his life.