Evening journal., 1897-09-04
GENTLE JEAN INeeLow.
Her Life of MOdesty, COntentmeHt
and Tranquil Resignation.


~ and Tranquil Resignation.
Jean 1ngelow, who died recently in
London, seemed curiously out of place
in the literary life of the day when any
writer who has done anything to at
tract attention lives so much in the pub
lie eye Jean Ingelow's career was
quiet and gentle in it's course. The
greater part of her work, however, was
done at period previous to that In
which the public interest in celebrities
was as fully grahfied as it is to-day.
For nearly a quarter of century she
had been neglected by the world in
spite Of the great popularity that her
earlier writings had won. But il is
certainly notable that a writer who was
esteemed the most popular woman poet
of her day, whose books in her country
ran through % editions and in the
United States were sold to the number
of 100000, should never have been inter
viewed. But this was one of Miss In
gelow's distinctions.
Probably this resulted from the hor-
ror of publicity which had always pre-
vented her from appearing in gather.
ings Of istable persons. 1t is said that
she would not even accept invitations
to dinners at which the company was
likely to be made up too much Of we'll
known persons. There was one series
of entertainments in which she in
dulged herself for many years. Three
times a week she invited to dinner at
her house the poor people lately dis
4 tf.I
borhood, and it Is said that IN her own
view of the world the dinner table was a
place much more adapted to such prac-
tical charity than to poetry. Her ac-
quaintance was not limited, however.
to persons so distant from her own
sphere Many eminent. literary men
of the time were among her intimate
friends. RuslSin was one of these
and he is said TO have taken particular
pleasure in her society-Lord Tennyson
was another. and her personal set had
included Dante Gabriel Rosetti, James
Russell Lowell. Oliver Wendell Holmes,
and many others Of almost equal fame.
Miss lngelow was born in n small
town in Lincolnshire, where her father
was n banker, and, although she had
lived for many years previous 70 her
death In Kensington, il is said that her
shy. modest manners never lost the
quality that her early life in the coua-
try had given them. She was never
n beauty, although her face was won
derfully attractive in its sweetness and
variability Of expression to the persons
who knew her. Although as a child of
five she had shown n wonderful SEN
sitiyeness to rhythm, her first poems
were not published until she was A
years old. The book was published
anonymously at her own expense
When the small edition was exhausted
her publisher advised her that il would
not be wise to attempt the experiment
of another issue. But the great popu
larity that her work suddenly achieved
proved the fallacy of that counsel. Sh,
became suddenly famous, and It was
not long before all the eminent writers
of the day had made her acquaintance
She and her mother had moved to Ken
sington. and this sudden extension o.
her acquaintance was not without il
embarrassment to a woman whose pre-
NAbNo hAt Na0 hNtA 80 9uACl-
She had not read great deal befor,
she began her career as poet, and sh,
attributed much of the freshness Of hei
verse to this circumstance. The sue
cess OF her first volume was never re
peated. The public would never be at
tracted TO her succeeding works as i
had been 20 the verses that made thei
appearance so modestly in 1868. Fo
many years before her death she has
known nothing of the delights that tn
golden years of her fame-yearsl liInitey
70 little more than a decade-ha,
brought so Unexpectedly to her. Blu
II is said that her gentle, optimisti
nature never showed any resentmen
at the indifference OF the public. Sh
was eminently hopeful, contented, an,
determined TO take the sunniest view o
life. Her natural disposition luckil,
made this attitude the easiest for her
So she was never heard to complain o
the fclSleness of the public taste, whicl
for many years had left her quite on
of its thoughts.-N. Y. Sun.