Frankfort Heritage Lecture Series - The Beauchamp Tragedy: Frankfort's Most Famous 19th Century Murder

The subject of what is often regarded as Robert Penn Warren's best novel as well as unfinished play by Edgar Alan Poe, the murder of Solomon P. Sharp by Jeroboam Beauchamp in vindication of an alleged affront to virtue in 1825 is a classic tale of misdirected honor involving seduction, revenge, and a suicide pact, a killing that attracted national attention and was followed by a 137-page confession by the perpetrator. It is an instance where the actual facts eclipse almost any array of facts a novelist might imagine.

Dr. Richard Taylor is the author of numerous collections of poetry, to historical novels, and several books relating to Kentucky history, including Elkhorn: Evolution of a Kentucky Landscape (2018). A former Kentucky poet laureate, he has received two creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as an Al Smith Award from the Kentucky Arts Council. Dr. Taylor received a bachelors and Ph.D. in English from the University of Kentucky and a masters in English and a Juris Doctorate from University of Louisville. Practicing law for a few months, he gave up legal practice, a leave-taking he regards as his gift to the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

During graduate school, he taught in high schools across Kentucky with the Poetry-in-the-Schools Program through the Kentucky Arts Council, editing an anthology of student writing called Cloud Bumping. Embarking on a career in education, he taught at Kentucky State University in Frankfort until retiring in 2008. During that time, he taught in the Governor’s School for the Arts as well as serving as director of the Governor’s Scholars Program on two campuses. He also spent a year in Denmark as scholar-teacher in the Fulbright Program, also teaching a graduate course at Kangwon University in South Korea as well as short periods teaching abroad in England and Ireland in a studies-abroad program.

Dr. Taylor has received publication awards from the Kentucky Historical Society and the Thomas D. Clark Medallion for his Elkhorn book as well as receiving a Distinguished Professor Award at KSU. Recently retired after fourteen years from Transylvania University as Keenan Visiting Writer, he is co-owner of Poor Richard’s Books and lives on a small farm outside Frankfort, Kentucky. He was inducted to the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame in 2023.