The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-09-07
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.


makers shop which nearly every farm
then had as a resource in the otherwise
idle hours of the long winter. The
.nanuel, homely labor upon which he was
employed was In part the foundation OF
that deep interest which the poet never
ceased to take in the toll AID plain for
tunes of the people. Throughout his
poetry runs this golden thread OF sympa
thy with honorable labor aud enforced
poverty, and many poems are directly in
spired by 1t. While ut work with his
father he sent poems TO the HaucrhiU
Gazette. his first poem, The Exile's De-
parture," having been published in that
journal June 1, 1926 Thus for more than
sixty years he has been singing To his
countrymen.
He had two years academic training.
and occupied himself a few months in
teaching; but his main support during
that period when he was acquiring his
position as "a poet was drawn from edi-
torial work. In 1928 he contributed to
and In effect edited the American Manu-.
fdcturcr, paper published In Boston. A
year or two later he was employed as
editor Of the HdUCrhut Gazette, and later
OF the Ncto England Weekly RcUiciC In
Hartford. Conn. Then came a term of
four years when he returned to his bone
farm, but IL Was followed by n new
charge OF the Gazette, and in 1888 he
edited the Pennsylvania Freeman, which
was honored by the hatred of the pro-
slavery party. Tho hall in which the
paper was published was destroyed by a
mob few months later. In "A he was
In Lowell. writing for the Mtddleser
Standard; and In lS47 he began his most
important connection with the National
Era of Washington, connection which.
as contributor aud editor, he maintained
for dozen years.
This was the last of his formal conrec-
tions with journalism. BY this time he
won the right TO consult his own prefer
ences and to write when and what he
chose. and TO use the most convenient
vehicles, as indeed tie best were now al
ways at his service. He had used his OPP
pOrtunities well, and large part of his
prose writings, pretty much all indeed
except Leaves from Margaret Smiths
Journal" had appeared first in The sew
eral papers with which he had been con
nected. In these papers, and in the more
exclusively anti-slavery journals, had also
Q Ipeared n larse portion o. his v rse
His first volume, Legends of New
England in Prose aud Verse" was ISSUED
in 1881. In 1887 appeared . Poems writ
ten during the Progress OF the Abolition
the years 1880 aud 1881 This was Il thin
volume collected and issued by Isaac
Knapp, Mr.. Garrison's partner. The
next year, however, when Mr. Whittier
was In Philadelphia, publisher OF that
city brought out more substantial vol
ume In 1S4S appeared Voices OF Free
Iom," and the next year a handsome
illustrated volume was published.
The greatest accession TO his popularity
no doubt came with the publication OF
Snow Bound" in 1886, but from the APP
pearance OF his collected edition in Is Z
aud with the opportunity affor,le by the
founding of the Atlantic Monthly ia the
same year, there has been since that day
a steady succession of volumes OF verse,
most of which have been collections OF
poems individually contributed to peri
odicals. In 1886. at the two hundred aud
fiftieth anniversary of the founding OF
Harvard University, he received the de-
gree Of Doctor of Laws.