The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1898-04-23
The Home Life of Some Ameri-
can Authors.

authors, with only few exceptions,
was spent happily with their fam
lilies, away from the cares of the out
side world. In the home of Irving
at Sum y side was found .u,t what
one wound expect to find in the home
II a man of his qualities-books, in
Vulnerable, and the choic st that an
author could gather around him, al.
handsomely bound and t. stefully ar
ranged; beautiful pa ,ntings adorned
the walls and the furniture plain
but rich, showed the good taste of
its owner, 1t was as Irving said he
wished it to be, "a home with home
comforts and home air, more hand
some than splendid" 1t was pre-
sided over by his sister and her two
daughters, for Irving had never
married; he always cherished in
memory the name Of his bethrothed
who died q few months after their
engagement. He was very fond of
his nicces and took pleasure in max
ing them comfortable. He was as
they proclaimed him to be, the
jolliest and most lovable uncle in
the world, and could hardly be said
TO have made an enemy during his
life. He was most charming host
and was never more in his element
than when surrounded by appre-
alive friends.
What contrast is exhibited be-
tween his life and that of Poe. For
there are few names among the
Eeniuses of our literature whose
history is so completely dark and
sad as that of Edgar Allan Poe,
His early life was happy enough in
the beautiful home OF the Adams,
but at the early age OF seventeen he
formed the habit of drinking--a
habit which wrecked his whole life.
: He married his cousin, Virginia
GLENN, when she was only fourteen
and the two, with Virginia S mother,
led "a life of the deepest poverty for
ten years. The marriage, rash and
foolish as it may seem, was one OF
the best things in his life. He was
always kind and devoted husband.
His home in the suburbs of New
York where he lived in the last days
of his wife 5 illness was at the top
of Fordham Hill On the ground
floor were two apartments, sitting
room and a kitchen, and above up
narrow stairway were two others,
one. Poe S room, the other Il small
bedroom hardly large enough to lie
down in. In this room on a straw
bed with only her husbands coat
and tortoise shell cat in her bosom
10 keep her warm, Virginia lay dur
ing the last days of her life. a few
flithful friends stood by Poe and
watched him through that crisis OF
his life 1t is needless to say any
thing of the rest of Poe 5 life, for it
can hardly be said that he had q
home after that. and there are not
many who do not know how, when
and where this genius of American
literature died.
Two of our authors. Emerson and
Hawthorne, who were born in
massachusetts, lived very quiet
lives. But that of Hawthorne was
more secluded than Emerson $ for
he had inherited a sense of loneliness
from his mother. and from the age
o twenty one to thirty-three lived
almost the life of a hermit The
early years of his married life were
spent in poverty and obscurity in
the cold Manse at Concord, but
there was always to be found per-
feet sympathy and happiness in his
home. 1t has been said that theirs
was an ideal marriage. After
moving into the "Wayside" in the
same city he went out in society
some but was always silent and
reserved in general company; Emer-
son, on the other hand, loved to
have his friends around him and his
lovely home became the resort of
the foremost literary and public men
of America. 1t was in his home
life that the loveliness of his char
acter was shown. His childhood
was spent most happily, but, des-
cended from an old Puritan family
in the early days of the present cen
fury, we can well imagine the rude
simplicity of his birthplace. 1t
could not have been unlike Bryant's
harl y home at Cummington, which
WAS an u lpreten ious one, with no
marked difference IRON the rest of
the houses of the town; but Bryant
left it too early in life to give it
much interest as his home. The
home that we associate him with
most since his death is 'Cedarmcre"
at Roslyn, l.. L., about twenty miles
from New York. 1T may be easily
reached by a ferry which daily plies
to the great metropolis and returns.
Another ten years of his life were
spent in Great Darlington, of which
much can be said in praise of the
general surroundings indeed, it
must have been most charming
place for the home of poet. Monu-
ment Mountain looks down from the
North. The story of an Indian girl
mad leap from the summit is the
subject of one of his finest poems.
The placid Housatonic river flows
close by, and the country drives,
With their abundance of beautiful
elmsI add charm to the general as
pect of the place. But Cedarmere
seems the most appropriate place