The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-05-13
DEATH OF A NOTED POET
RICHARD HENRY STODDARD
WRITER OF MANY VERSES.
Last Member of His Family-A Victim
of Rheumatism of the Heart and
Ailments Due to Age.

NEW YORK, May 12.-Richard Henry
Stoddard, the poet died to-day at his resi-
dence in this city. Mrs. Stoddard died less
than a year ago. and his son, Lorimer
Stoddard. is also dead. Mr. Stoddard was
the only one of the family left. For
week past he had been confined to his bed
with rheumatism of the heart and ills in
cident to old age. The funeral will be held
Thursday at p. m. in the Church of the
Messiah. the Rev. Robert Collyer and the
Rev. Minot ]. Savage officiating. The in
terment will be at Sag Harbor.
Richard Henry Stoddard. poet and jour-
nalist. was born at bingham. Mass, July
2, 1875. His father was a sea captain and
was lost at sea. His mother removed to
New York In 1885, and there remarked.
The son obtained his education at the
public schools Of that city, and sought
work in an iron foundry, which he con-
tinued until 1S49 supplementing his earlier
studies by reading the best authors, and
more particularly poetry. He made friends
with Bayard Taylor just after the publica-
ton of the latter's ''views Afoot." Mrs.
Caroline Kirkland was then editing the
Union Magazine, and, going abroad in 1S47,
she left the magazine in Mr.. Taylor's
charge and recommended Mr.. Stoddard to
him. Stoddard's first poem appeared in
this magazine, and In 1S49 he issued a
small volume of verse. Footprints" the
edition of which was afterwards suppress
ed Failing health having obliged him to
devoted himself altogether to literary work.
He became contributor to the "Knicker-
booker" and other leading magazines, and
ed in 1852, containing 'Leonatus,'' THE
Witch's Whelp." and other poems which
brought him into much favor He had be-
come acquainted with Read, Boxer and
other prominent authors, of Philadelphia,
Boston and New York. and visited Haw-
thorne at Concord with James T. Fields
and Edwin p. Whpple. in the summer Of
1852 In 1852. also, he married Miss Eliza
beth Barstow, of Mattapoizett, Mass. The
Following year, with the assistance of
Hawthorne, he detained position In the
New York customhouse, which he held
until 1870, having found that the literary
market of that time gave returns that
needed experimenting by another means
of Summer, 1857, had appeared in Put
MANS Monthly and other periodicals. and
this book marked a new phase in Ameri-
beauty and feeling and not to didactics or
reform. Mr.. Stoddard was literary edi-
tor Of the New York World from 1869 to
1870. 1.-The Kings Bell narrative poem.
phrased Abraham Lincoln: Horation
Ode 1865, and these confirmed his reputa-
the East" 1867. From 1859 to 1861 the nest Stod
dards and Taylors occupied the same house
in New York.
In 1872 Stoddard became editor of The
Aldine, a New York literary journal which
he managed for several years. From 1850
to the present time he has been literary
editor of the New York Mail and Express
His studies in early and recent English
poetry which have made him a leading
authority on this subject. have taken shape
in several volumes. THE Loves and Hero
ines of the Pets" 1861, is of biographical.
edited Melodies and Madrfgais mostly
from the Old English Poets" 1865 and
selections form THE Late English Poets"
1861 More he has edited S S with
1855, and a volume of his verse, chiefly con-
corning modern English poets. has been
published as Under the Evening Lamp"
in 1892 Mr.. Stoddard also edited the en-
larged edition of Griswold's Poets and
Poetry of America" and Female Poets CT
America 1S72-73, and wrote a memoir of
Poe for the reissue of Griswold's cation
the monographs on Bryant, Irving, Shelley,
and other authors, and edited the "Bric-a-
Brac" series. in ten volumes, 1915. COL
lective edition of his Poems appeared in
1880. His later poetry is mostly Contained
in 1.-The Lions Cub. with Other Verse;" in
1890. He delivered. before the Army of the
Potomac, at Springfield. Mass, a poem en-
titled 1.-The Victories of Peace" in 1878, and
the same year rected his poem, History"
before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Hair
ward. Mr.. Stoddard was the guest of the
Century Association, at New York, at a
brilliant dinner given in his honor on
March 26. 1897. His voice was as lyrical and
his touch fine and strong as ever, de-
spite the years that weighed upon the most
distinguished of then living American
poets. The poem, THE Witch's whelp :"
was written as a companion piece to and
at the same time with Bayard Taylor's