The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-11-08
NEW ENGLAND WRITERS.
A Letter About Blanche Willis Howard,
Annie Louise Cary and Others.
TSneciaI Corresnondence


Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, Oct. 26.-Some thirty odd
years ago there was developed on the New
England seacoast a remarkable literary
instinct among the young women living
in that vicinity. Celia Thaxter, as a school
girl, was beginning to draw TO her the eye
of those literary powers who controlled
The Atlantic Monthly. She was writing
poems and they had delicious flavor of
the sea air in them, and suggested an
imagination stimulated by daily vision of
the ocean. Miss Sarah Orme Jewett was
also beginning to write in a girlish man.
ner short sketches which contained prom
Use which she has subsequently fulfilled as
a mistress of the art of short story telling.
Miss Edna Dean Proctor was also gaining
repute by her stirring lyrics and gentler
poems, and Louisa NJ. Alcott was fasci-
mating the readers of weekly story papers.
Miss wilkins, then a little schoolgirl in
short petticoats, was, with childish wis
dom and intuition, gaining impressions of
those quaint country characters whom she
has of late immortalized in her volumes,
"a Humble Romance" and "A New Eng
land Nun" Near the coast of Maine there
was young girl who had both the literary
instinct and a musical gift. She was a
frolicsome, jovial, whole souled creature,
fond of romp, and so exuberant in her
sports that her friends used sometimes to
wonder whether she was not likely to be-
come that reprehensible but not very
shocking character which is known in
New England as a tomboy; but when she
sang for them, they forgave her her child
S.E l., eha roll hzr he
fairy stories which she invented as they
chatted, they thought her wonderful. Mu-
sic mastered her, and afterward, when she
became famous as Americas greatest con-
tralto on the operate stage, Annie Louise
Cary used sometimes TO go TO her old
Maine home by the seacoast and for few
weeks live her old, frolicsome and jovial
life over again with her companions whom
she had outgrown.
Rose Terry, down by the seashore IN
eastern Connecticut, was beginning 70
write fer The Atlantic Monthly her de-
lightful stories Of New England life, and
Mrs. Stowe, who lived for some years near
the Maine seacOast, was writing her series
of novels whose stores were located in that
vicinity. IL was period Of extraordinary
development for these women who drew
physical vigor as well as intellectual
strength with every breath Of sea air.
Perhaps the most interesting career OF
all has been that Of Blanche Willis Howard,
and il is suggested just now when new
novel Of hers. entitled "A Battle and a
Boy" is on the press. Miss Howard is the
daughter Of a Maine physician, and she
did not display literary instinct until she
was well along toward the close Of her
school days. Her neighbors knew her IS a
whole souled. jolly girl. full CT fan and de-
lighting in frolic which characterized her
schoolgirl acquaintance Miss Cary, who
was. however. some years older.
Miss Howard sstonished her father, the
physician, one day nearly twenty years
ago. by declaring that she wanted 90 spend
a summer IN Europe. Tue father said
"No, and the daughter persisted Then.
in order 10 quiet her, be declared that &c
had not the money, and sue laughed al
him, showing how she had by certain
feminine snrewdness earned enough %
take her on brief trip. % the fzslssr
was persuaded, and. ia com P&ry wiffS two
or three friends. Miss Howard tex her