The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-12-22


This is an appreciative biography of
an eminent naturalist, artist author
and lecturer. This is the second work
Of Importance that Mr.. Adams has
published recently. The other is the
beautiful Mature Studies in Berk-
shire" and by the same publishers.
This volume is a thorough and APP
preciative account of the life of an ex-
ceedingly successful and interesting
man. He places Gibson among the
three men who have done more than
any others to inspire our generation
with the love of nature. Inc other
two, of course are Henry D. Thoreau
and, John Burroughs.
"Thoreau, when the generation was
young, challenged it to come out OF
doors, live in a shanty and see as
much of the world as he saw. John
Burroughs, in later years, has acted as
guide to a multitude Of minds, eager 10
be personally conducted" to field ana
forest. William Hamilton Gibson, be-
sides winning many feet into those
highways and byways" whose charms
he taught us to feel, was fortunate in
his exceptional power to bring nature
to the very eyes of men in the works
of his pencil and which he made lu-
minous literally ILLUSTRATED" - his
pages. This alone would be justif1-
cation of some account of his life and
work"
This book is beautifully illustrated
with various portraits of the subject
and reproductions of his works WITH
excellent half-tones.
Mr.. Gibson had a fortunate boy
hood. He was well born and his early
life was happy. Gibson began life as
an insurance agent, but soon went
into commercial art. He soon had all
lo he do h
fishers, drawing on wood and. stone
for purposes of illustration.
His progress in life is shown in the
biography by his letters to his mother.
They are simple, straightforward and
interesting. 1t was but natural for
him to take the step to authorship and
illustrate his own work. From au-
thorship to the lecture field was an
other natural step. His work seemed
always to be gaining in strength and
breadth and dignity.
In a most fascinating chapter about
THE Workman and His Work." the
author has given US sketches from his
letters and notebooks. Something
about the charming personality of Mr..
Gibson 1t is proper to reproduce here.
But it would be difficult TO find two
men in more total contrast than Tho
reau and Gibson. The former may
have loved Ito stand apart, to work in
his own ways, to avoid association, to
prefer lonely walks" But the latter
loved to touch elbows with his fell
lOw-men to cultivate friendships, and
share the joys of society; to walk with
a company of congenial spirits, from
whom he was always learning some
thing, unless they were those to whom
he could always teach something. He
was not the least bit Of a recluse. A
hermitage would have had no charms
IL IL
sense, "a man of the world" who loved
his kind, and loved to live with them.
There was no "solitariness' about him.
He was eminently social. So far was
he from wandering alone up and
down the world that he always drew
a crowd about him, wherever he went.
He was no McGregOr, to usurp the
head Of the table; but wherever Gibson
was, there was the centre of the circle.
And, far from being "a man of 81
lence," he was the freest and easiest
of takers. accessible communicative,
as genial as sunshine, as fluent as a
brook.
The nature which was in him be-
gan to express itself from the earliest
years. In his school days he was any<
thing but the shy. retiring child which
would be the father of such man as
our critic described; and his love and
yearning for COmpanionship and the
expression of affection came out in al
most every one OF his juvenile letters.
1t is so seldom that a boys letters real
ly express the boys life that one does
not feel that they have any perma-
nent interest. But the boy Gibson
wrote letters which deserve to be pre-
served. They are as quaint as if they
were fictitious. They could not have
been truer to life if they had been
made out of whole cloth"
Mr.. Gibson's health began to fail in
1895. The strain of his long lecture
tours told seriously upon his strength,
and several times he suffered from
fainting attacks and vertigo. On July
16 in that year he died.
Rev. Almon A Gunnison of St Law
renee University, formerly pastor of
the First Universalist Church of Wor-
cester, speaking out of a long and in
innate acquaintance in Brooklyn,
wrote of him a few weeks after his
death:
There have been few men Of larger
manhood than this pOet-artist, this seer
and interpreter Of nature. He was
open-minded and trustful as a child
He loved everything that was manly
and his sense Of right was an instinct
and a passion. He was tolerant in
faith and scorned all narrowness
Reverent, worshipful. a lover of God
and man. Not since Gilbert White If
Selborne died has there lived one who
more infinitely discerned nature. and
never has there been one more dou,ria5
to interpret her. Thoreau had equal
skill of vision and perhaps larger grace
Of literary expression. burroughs has
the same order of dfscernment and a
like art to make nature interpret her.