“Beautiful Dreamer", a parlor song by Stephen…

“Beautiful Dreamer", a parlor song by Stephen Foster, is published posthumously in March 1864 by Wm. A. Pond & Co. of New York.

The first edition declares on the title page that "Beautiful Dreamer" is "the last song ever written by Stephen C. Foster. Composed but a few days prior to his death."

Carol Kimball, the author of Song, points out however that the copyright date on the first edition is 1862, and this suggests, she writes, that the song was composed and readied for publication two years before Foster's death.

There are at least twenty-odd songs, she observes, that all claim to be Foster's last, and it is unknown which is indeed his last.

The song is set in a 9/8 rhythm with a broken chord accompaniment.

Stephen Foster had attempted to make a living as a professional songwriter and may be considered innovative in this respect, since this field does not yet exist in the modern sense.

Due in part to the limited scope of music copyright and composer royalties at the time, Foster had realized very little of the profits his works generated for sheet music printers.

Multiple publishers often printed their own competing editions of Foster's tunes, paying Foster nothing.

He had received a total of $100 for Oh, Susanna.

Foster had moved to New York City in 1860.

About a year later, his wife and daughter had left him and returned to Pittsburgh.

Beginning in 1862, his fortunes had decreased, and with them the quality of his new songs.

Early in 1863, he had begun working with George Cooper, whose lyrics were often humorous and designed to appeal to musical theater audiences.

The Civil War has created a flurry of newly written music with patriotic war themes, but this had not benefited Foster.

Having become impoverished while living at the North American Hotel at 30 Bowery on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York, Foster had reportedly been confined to his bed for days by a persistent fever; he had tried to call a chambermaid, but had collapsed, falling against the washbasin next to his bed and shattering it, which had gouged his head.

It had taken three hours to get him to Bellevue Hospital.

In an era before transfusions and antibiotics, he succumbed three days after his admittance, aged thirty-seven, on January 13, 1864.

His worn leather wallet contained a scrap of paper that simply said, "Dear friends and gentle hearts," along with thirty-eight cents in Civil War scrip and three pennies.