| Theodore S. Fay | |
| Birth Date: | February 10, 1807 |
| Birth Place: | New York |
| Death Place: | Berlin |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | writer of fiction and non-fiction, journalist, and diplomat |
Theodore Sedgwick Fay (February 10, 1807 - November 17, 1898) was an American writer who spent much of his life in Germany.
Fay initially worked as a clerk for his father, an attorney. His father died in 1825, and he continued long enough in law to be admitted to the bar in 1828, but he quickly left the legal profession for periodical journalism,[1] where he made a name for himself for some years. To this period belongs his book Dreams and Reveries of a Quiet Man (2 vols., 1832), which contained papers he had written for the New York Mirror, where he was an editor beginning in 1828.[2] He married Laura Gardenier in 1833 and went traveling in Europe for three years while sending back articles to the Mirror.[2] He served with ability in the United States diplomatic service, first as secretary of the legation at London briefly (1837), then at Berlin (1837–53), and next (1853–61) as Minister at Bern, Switzerland.
In 1859, Fay delivered a report to the Swiss Federal Council that was to be considerably influential in the struggle for the emancipation of Jews in Switzerland. The "Denkschrift betreffend die Zulassung der nordamerikanischen Israeliten zur Niederlassung in der Schweiz" (Memorandum concerning the admission of North American Israelites to settle in Switzerland) gave an overview of the existing discriminatory laws against Jews in Switzerland, also going into great depths to refute all arguments that supported these laws.[3] [4] Fay had visited many Jewish communities in the region under the guidance of Rabbi Moïse Nordmann of Hegenheim. Following this report, which had been printed and distributed to the Swiss cantons, small changes were undertaken on the cantonal level, contributing on a larger scale to the eventual emancipation of the Jews in Switzerland in 1866.
Fay retired from his diplomatic career in 1861. He then moved to Berlin. His first wife died while he was at Bern, and he later married a German woman.
Other works include:
He also wrote for periodicals throughout his life.[2]