Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-12-19
GOSSIP ABOUT LIVING POETS.

William Cullen Bryant, says the
Home journal, recently celebrated
his eignty-second birthday, having ]
been born November 3, 1894, in
Cumington, Massachusetts,. He
looks little over three-score and ten,
having still an elastic figure AMI
quick step. He shows his vigor
and fondness for exercise by walk
ing, as he quantity puts it, "every
morning down to his Evening
Post" The poets head and face
are covered with a liberal supply OF
silyery locks, and he rather takes a
pride in seeing his classic and ven
erable self as others see him, for
there is scarcely a photographer In
town who has not a fine portrait OF
Bryant. At public dinners he may
often be seen, and at speech-making
he is not at all backward. Although
he is to be frequently met in the
streets of the city, he rarely at
tends the opera or theater. Mr..
Bryant writes so little poetry now
he may be said to have laid down
the Tyre; but Of general literature
and journalistic labor he still per-
forms a great deal of work.
Mr.. Tennyson, now sixty-six
years old, is still in his prime Of
thought and capacity for work.
The only ill he's heir to is an an
nual hay fever. He is six feet high,
broad shouldered and largc-boned,
but not stout. His face is long,
and somewhat resembles that of
Dante, save that he has not the
rigid mold and expression of the
great Florentine, and tho nose is
not so aquiline. His hair is long
and black, his complexion olive.
Whittier is sixty-eight years old
and a most quaint, kindly and re-
d fined person, using habitually the
Quaker thee" and "thou."
Henry w. Longfellow is yeal
older, and wears well the dignity o
the gentleman and the poet.
Lowell is fifty-seven, and has thu
t look of the critic rather than of thc
poet.
d Stoddard is lifty-six years old
u about five feet nine inches high
/" and wears full iron gray beard
This author looks every inch poet
Is and in conversation is bright an
!, witty. For fifteen years he 'led tn
l. o ubiic crib" in the customs service
but now his whole time is occupie
in contributing to the magazine
% :, and newspapers. The right han
: being paralyzed, Mr.. Stoddard ha
g. learned to write with his left. StoC
dard's wife is writer Of no mea
ie ability, and has made reputatiO
1t for herself in the literary world.
ic Thomas Bailey Aldrich, jul
forty years of age, was born in Ne
III Hamp shire; laid the foundation fc
n his reputation in New York; wrot
r. "Babie BELIEF while he was in h
teens, and now resides in BostoI
Aldrich's reputation as poet an
at novelist is increasing and improl
ing, foreign critics Of high autho
co ity placing him among the fir
American writers. He had son
at experience as an editor and literal
ed critic, having commenced his CT
an reer in the office of the Home Jou
n. nal. Aldrch has wife and sever
,e. children.
ad William Morris, the poet, livl
w. in a charming house in Londoi
he enlivened by thepresence Of beat
tiful wife and three pretty childrel
His study is reached by thr'
'e- flights of stairs, and is a bare room
hung with Jumps of tobacco, an
ne having for writing purposes a cur
lei ous hacked table and an ancier
ink-horn. Herein the Fart
"A. Paradise" was written. The shal
ty. gy-haired, kind-faced poet nev'
nd looked handsomer than when h
ed little ones are dancing about hi
and climbing over him.