The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-08-04
GENTLE JEAN INGELOW.
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 attra ct
attention lives SO much in the public eye.
Jean Ingelow's career was quiet and
gentle in its course. The greater part of
her work, moreover, was done at period
previous to that in which the public in
terest in celebrities was as fully gratified
as it is today. For nearly 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 twenty three editions and in the
United States were sold to the number of
200, 900, should never have been inter-
viewed. But this was one of Miss Inge-
lows distinctions.
Probably this resulted from the horror
of publicity which had always prevented
her from appearing in gatherings OF nota-
BILE persons. 1t is said that she would
lOb 0N6Il ttCC6pu IuflldulO0o W OAhACAc So
which the company was likely to be made
up too much of well known persons.
There was one series Of entertainments
in which she INDUCED herself for many
years. Three times week she invited
to dinner at her house the poor people
lately discharged from the hospitals In
the neighborhood, and 1t is said that in
her own view of the world the dinner
table was place much more adapted to
such practical charity than to poetry.
Her acquaintance was not limited, how
ever, 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
to have taken particular pleasure in her
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 small town
in Lincolnshire, where her father was q
banker, and, although she had lived for
many years previous to her death in Ken
sington, it is said that her shy, modest
manners never lost the quality that her
early life in the country had given her.
She was never beauty, although her
face was wonderfully attractive in its
sweetness and variability of expression to
the persons who knew her. Although as
a child OF i've she had shown a wonderful
sensitiveness to rhythm. her first poems
were not published until she was forty
three years old. The book was published
anonymously at her own expense. When
the small edition was exhausted, her pub
Usher advised her that it would not be
wisesto'at tempt the experiment. of another
issue. But the great popularity that her
| work suddenly achieved proved the fallacy
| of that counsel. She became suddenly
| famous, and it was not long before all
| the eminent writers of the day made her
acquaintance She and her mother had
moved to Kensington and this sudden ex-
! tension of her acquaintance was not
without its embarrassment to woman
whose previous life had been so quiet.
She bad not read great deal before she
began her career as a poet, and she at
| tributed much of the freshness of her
verse to this circumstance. The success
| of her first volume was never repeated.
| The public would never be attracted to
her succeeding works as it had been to the
verses that made their appearance SC
modestly in 1868. For ma ny years before
her death she had known nothing of the
delights that the golden years of her fame
years limited to little more than q
decade had brought SO Unexpectedly t.
| her. But it is said that her gentle, Opt
mistic naturesnever showed any resent
| nent at the Indifference of the public
She was eminently hopeful contented
and determined to take the sunnlest view
of life. Her natural disposition luckily
made this attitude the easiest for her. 81
she was never heard to complain of the
| fckleness of the public taste, which for sc
many years had left her quite out of its
thoughts. New York Sun.