Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1897-11-04
GENTLE JEAN iNeeLow.
Her Life of MOdesty, COntentment.
and Tranquil Resignation.

Her Life of MOdesty, Contentment {.
and Tranquil Resignation.
Jean Ingelow, 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 its course. The
greater part of her work, however, was
done at a period previous to that in
which the public interest in celebrities
was as fully gratified 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 it is
certainly notable that 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 notable persons. Il 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
obliged herself for many years, Three
times "a week she invited TO dinner at
her house the poor people lately dis
charged from the hospitals in the neigh
borhuod. aud II is said that in her own
view of tie world the dinner table was a
place much more adapted to such prac-
teal charity than to poetry. Her ac-
quaintauce was not limited, however.
TO persons so distant from her own
sphere. Many eminent literary men
of the time were among her intimate
friends. Ruskin was one of these
and he is said 20 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 Ingelow was born in a small
town in Lincolnshire, where her father
was a banker, and, although she had
lived for many years previous TO her
death in Kensington, it is said that her
shy, modest manners never lost the
quality that her early life in the coun-
try had given them. She was never
a beauty, although her face was Won
derfully attractive in its sweetness and
variability of expression 20 the persons
who knew her. Although as a child Of
FIVE she had shown a wonderful sem
sitiveness to rhythm, her first poems
were not published until she was ~
years old The book was published
anonymously at her own expense
When the small edition was exhausted
her publisher advised her that it would
not be wise 10 attempt the experiment
Of another issue. But the great popu-
larity that her work suddenly achieved
proved the fallacy of that counsel. She
became suddenly famous. and it YVES
not long before all the eminent writer's
OF the day had made her Acquaintance.
She and her mother had moved 70 Ken
sington, and this sudden extension %
her acquaintance was not without its
embarrassment to a woman whose pre-
vious life had been 50 quiet
She had not read q great deal before
she began her career rs a poet. ard she
attributed much Of the freshness other
verse TO this circumstance, The sue
cess Of her first volume was never re-
pented The public would never be al.
tracted 10 her Succeeding works as Z
bad lfeu to The ,erScf that made heir
appearance 50 modeStly ia 1863 To
many years before her death she hi
known nothing Of the delights hat he
COL ZEN wears OF her fame years limited
10 !ittlp more than decade-had
brought 50 unexpectedly to her. Buf
II is said that her gentle, optimisti,
nature never showed any resentment
at the Indifference Of the public SHE
was eminently hopeful, contented an2
determined to take the sunniest view OF
life. Her natural disposition luckily |
made this attitude the easiest for her. |
So she was never heard to complain 81 |
the fickleness of the public taste, which |
for many years had left her quite out
of its thoughts.-N. Y. Sun.