Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-04-25
AMERICAS LITERARY IDOL.
The Woman Before Whom the American
Reader, Especially II He Be Of the
Educated North, Bows Down.

Washington Post.l
In the beginning was Georgetown.
Before Washington thought of being,
Georgetown was a young lady in long
dresses, entertaining General Wash
ington, and seeing the best society of
the young Republic. Naturally, get
ting up SO early in the morning of the
century, Georgetown is a little weary
by this time, and what one finds now
is a village hal goes stepping up hill
and down in a desultory way, and, at
last, tired out, folds her hands and sits
still in the sunshine. That was what
the Post reporter, who, sooner or later,
finds out all pleasant people, found
yesterday afternoon, in seeking an
interview with Mrs. Emma d. e. N.
Southworth, than whom no American
writer has a larger constituency of
loving readers. Never, probably, in
all its interviewing existence, has the
Post been so gently entertained and so
interested as when the lady of the
pleasant cottage, on the very jumping
off place of the Georgetown Heights,
kindly placed at its disposal a memory
that was a treasure Of things new and
old, and was so absorbing that the
reporter forgot to ask Mrs. South
worth's opinion on the length of the
session.
"You do not spend your entire time
here?" remembering some weeks ago
encOuntering a " not at home.
mo, | have two homes-this and a
home at Yonkers, on the Hudson. |
was for a long time in the habit of
spending my summers there, to be
near my daughter and my son, DIR.
Richard SouthwOrth, who live there,
and l there bought a house., and now
spend much of my time there, only
coming back here for the sake Of old
times" !.
You are engaged in literary work
all the time
Il am writing continuously. In
deed, | have written constantly ever
since / was fifteen years old. That is,
think, the remarkable phase of my
life, that | have worked continuously
during the whole of that time, and
always battling against the insidiOus
disease, consumption, which is hered-
itary in the family"
And you have never broken
DOWN."
Il have never broken down. l
have never had a day ofperfect health
and yet | have never had to stop work
to recuperate. Work has been my
recreation since the time when, at
fifteen, l spent my holidays in copying
land warrants to do something toward
my own support after financial family
reyerses had rendered it necessary.
Indeed. in one instance, / must look
upon work as my salvation. When |
began writing my first work, Retribu-
ton, | was teaching in the district
schools of Washington, and exposure,
school work, the care of my children.
the fatigue Of writing, which was all
done in the evenings, brought on an
attack of hemorrhage. All the winter
| worked with a slow bleeding at the
lungs, which was only kept in check
by external irritation. As | wrote on
this trouble gradually disappeared. l
do not know when or how | forgot it.
| had no time TO be sick. When Ret
ribution' was finished it was gone.
1t has always been a marvel to me-"
The lady who has made this " long
walk" in the arena Of literature shows
no signs of WEAKNESS. She is working
to-day on her sixtieth novel, and her
thousands Of readers acknowledge the
same magical power of invention and
charm of imagination that moved
Whittier to write a letter to DR.. Bailey,
when the first chapters of " Retribu-
ton appeared, and asked him if he
was reading the story which he was
publishing in his W paper, and if so,
why he did not say more about this
new author which had SO suddenly
arisen. This was in the old days of
the National Era, in which paper
" Uncle Toms Cabin was first pub
lished, and in which Gail Hamilton,
IL the reporter is not mistaken, made
her FIRST bayonet charge on the public.
Was R%etributiOn your first
story?'
No. In 1871 wrote one-half Of
a story, called The Irish Refugee
and sent it TO the Saturday Visitor.
published at Baltimore, telling the
editor, if he liked it well enough to
want the rest, | would finish it. He
did like it, and | finished and he pub
lished it. When l began writing
Retribution for the National Era |
intended to finish it in two chapters.
| found | could not finish it in less
than three, and when | had come to
the end Of the third chapter it SO
grew upon me that | saw it would be
a book. When it was finished | offer.
ed it TO the Harpers. Henry J. Ray
mond was their reader at that time.
He reported favorably on il, and they
published it. From that time on /
devoted myself exclusively to litera.
ture.'
Previously to that you had
taught?'
; Yes, on leaving school at eighteen
Immediately began teaching at Mis-,
Talbot's seminary, on FOur-and- a-hal
t street. l afterward taught at Upper
= vile, Va, and also at Springfield
10. Soon after, | married FrederieI
= Southworth, and we went 10 Wiscon.
sin, which was then the far West, and
| for two years | lived the Life Of a pic.
t neer's wife. Ny husband was in tn,
/, fur trade, and | used to ACCOMPANY
, him on many Of his expeditions
t Later, he went to Brazil with Henri
S A. Wise, at that time minister I,
I Brazil. In 1851 | began writing fol
G the Ledger, in which 80 much Of IN
. subsequent work has appeared, and
in connection with that l want to pa,
a tribute TO Robert Bonner, who hal
I ham untf moot Glo..1 ,.1E.l -