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America's first professional songwriter; best known for parlor songs such as "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" and "Beautiful Dreamer" as well as blackface minstrel songs that include "Oh! Susanna" and "De Camptown Races". He brought refinement to the minstrel stage by combining the parlor and minstrel genres in songs such as "Nelly Was a Lady". Late in his career, he often set to music the lyrics of George Cooper. Recurrent themes in his works include noble deeds, the loss of family and friends, and a yearning for death
Works
- Oh! Susanna (1847)
- Old Uncle Ned (1848)
- My Brodder Gum (1849)
- Nelly Was a Lady (1849)
- Angelina Baker (1850)
- Camptown Races (1850)
- Nelly Bly (1850)
- Oh! Lemuel (1850)
- Old Folks at Home (1851)
- Massa's in de Cold Ground (1852)
- My Old Kentucky Home (1853)
- Old Black Joe (1853)
- Old Dog Tray (1853)
- Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway! (1854)
- Willie We Have Missed You (1854)
- The Glendy Burk (1860)
- Don't Bet Your Money on de Shanghai (1861)
- That's What's the Matter (1862)
- Nothing but a Plain Old Soldier (1863)
- A Soldier in the Colored Brigade (1863, with George Cooper)
- Beautiful Dreamer (1864)
- Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair
- Some Folks
Works about Foster
- "Foster, Stephen Collins," in A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, by John William Cousin, London: J. M. Dent & Sons (1910)
- "Foster, Stephen Collins," in Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed., 1911)
- "Foster, Stephen Collins," in The New Student's Reference Work, Chicago: F.E. Compton and Co. (1914)
Works by this author published before January 1, 1927 are in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. Translations or editions published later may be copyrighted. Posthumous works may be copyrighted based on how long they have been published in certain countries and areas.