The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-08-01
eEx1BE JEAN 1vaBLoW
lHer Iaro or N1ode.ty. Contentment. and Trnn-
qull Resignation.


joan Ingclow, who dicd recently in London,
seemed curiously out of place in the literary
life OF the day when any writer who has done
anything to attract attention lives SO much in
tho public eye. Jean 1ngclow's career was quiet
and gentle in its course. The greater part of
her work. moreover, was done at n period
previous to that in which tho public in.
forest In celebrities was as fully graf
flied MS it Is to-day. For nearly q
quarter Of n century sho had boon
neglected by the world in spite OF tho great pop
ularity that hcr earlier writings had won. But
IL is certainly notable that a writer who was cs-
tccmcd the most popular woman poet of her day,
whose books In her country ran through twshty-
three editions and in the Cnitcd states were
sold TO the number of 200, 900, should ncverhavo .
been interviewed. But this WAS ono of Miss
1ngolow's distinctions. ,t.
Probably this resulted from tho horror of pub
licity which had always prevented her from APP
penring in gatherings of notable persons. II Is
said that she would not even accept invitations
to dinners at which the company was likely TO
he made up too much of wcll.known persons.
There was one series of entertainments in which
she INDUCED herself for many years. Three
times IA week she invited To dinner Mt her
house tho poor people lately discharged
from the hospitals in the ncighborhood,
and it is said that in her own view
Oh the WOrlu the ulnncr (aDlc was n place muOh
moro adapted to such practical charity than to
poetry. Her acquaintance wns not limited,
however. to persons so distant from her own
sphere. Many eminent literary men ofthc time
were among her Intimate friends. Ruskin was
one of thcsc-and he Is said to have taken par
ticulnr pleasure in her socicty-Iord rennyson
was another. AMI her personal set had included
Dante Gabriel Rosctti. James Russell Lowell,
Oliver Wendell Holmes, and many others ot
almost equal fame.
Miss lngclow was horn in n small town in
and, although She had lived for many years
previous to her death in konsington, it is said
that her shy. modest manners never lost tho
quality that hgr early life in the country had
given them. She was never IA beauty. although
ness and variability OF expression 10 III" persons
who knew her. Although us n child OF ) she had
WIS AZ years old. Tho book was published
s smHiiY IN adiiion % Mns 81, axG HMn sSp Ser puf MGsm , nS.
yised her that it would not be wise to attempt
proved the iallncy of that counsel. She bc.
came suddenly famous, an it was not lo1g be.
had made her acquaintance. She and her
mother hoh moved to kcnsington and
ance was not without its embarrassment
to q woman whose previous life had been so
Sho had not read n great deal before she began
her career as a poet, and she attributed much of
lnc freshness OF ncr verse 10 InlS circumstance.
The success Of her first volume was never r-
peatod. The public would never be attracted to
her succeeding works as it had been to the
verses that made their appearance so
modcstly in 1863. For many Years before her
death she had known nothing of the de-
lights that the Gol Zen years o. her fame
yetrs limited to It'll" more than a DECIDE
it is said that her gentle, optimistic
nature never showed my resentment At the in
hopeful. contcnt"d. and determined to take tho
sunniest view OF life. Her natural disposition
luckily made this attitude the easiest Tor her.
So she was never heard to complain of the tickle-
ness of the public t"sic. which COR many years
had left her quite out Of its thoughts.