New-York tribune., 1907-03-20


THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICE
Who died yesterday.
was removed 70 his home, in Mount Vernon
street and shortly before ) o'clock this after
noon. the end came. The nature of the opera
ton not made public.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich was born in Portsmouth,
y. H. on November II. 1885, and had Just passed
his SEVENTEEN birthday. A good part of his boy
hood was passed in Louisiana but he returned to
Portsmouth in time to have those delightfully."- and
truly boyish experiences that. with little aid from
his ever ready fancy. he gave TO the world in his
STORY OF a Bad Boy" At Portsmouth, the River
mouth of the story the real boy prepared for col
ege The death OF his father. following soon after
a business failure, prevented the fulflment OF his
ambition. An uncle in New York stood ready to
bear the expense of the college course but the
young mamie was by that time in his eighteenth
year-was of too independent a nature TO be a
charge where he felt he had claim and he elect
ed to enter his unce's counting room instead of
Harvard
For three years Aldrich worked at his desk as a
clerk. but he spent his leisure hours in composing
poems. for some Of which he found 4 market. Mr..
Stedman whose friendship with the poet antedates
the day OF Babe Bell" mas related that when
Aldrich's uncle. who objected 10 his young assist
ant wasting valuable time rhymes" learned
that James T. Fields had paid the lad Sl5 for a
poem he dumfounded, and naTvely exclaimed
Why don't you send one 70 the laundering fool
every day?"
In 1855. when he was nineteen and was still work
ing for his uncle. he brought HIS first volume-a
thin drodecimo-entitled The Bells: a Collection
OF Chimes Like all young authors. Aldrich was
proud of his first book and he himself has told
how when the first copy came from the binder
ne dispatched it 10 the author OF The Autocrat al
the Breakfast Table" as If DR. Holmes had been
impatienty waiting for n
In return" said Mr.. Aldrich. Il received the
findest letter written by celebrity 10 an OBJ
scurity. II virtually told me not TO make any
more verses unless could make better ones II
told me this. but with such delicate frankness OF
phrase that II semed TO me II the writer had
leid his hand in tender reproof upon my shoulder.
as an elder brother might have done"
The advice thus kindly given and npprecla, ,i,-el,
taken had its due effect. He proceeded in fact
to show that he could make better ones. and no
did.
CHOSE HIS PROFESSION.
In 1856. before he had reached his majority. his
Ballad OF Babe Bell. and Other Poems was
received with popular favor. This and Other s,,r-
cesses determined him TO make literature his seri
Gus profession. lie became first q proofreader and
then a manuscript reader in publishing house
meanwhile 10 the periodicals OF the
Monthly" The Knickerbocke~',
and The New York Evening Mirror" Later in
the year he Joined the editorial staff Of Tho
Home Journal"-then under the management Of
~ p Willis and George F. Morrs-where he
worked for three years as assistant editor lie
kept his pen as busy his blue pencil and in 1857
he published another book, "Daisy's Necklace. and
What Came of It." The Course OF True Love
Never Did Run Smooth" followed in 1Sss
During his sojourn in New York Mr. Aldrich be-
came the associate OF Bayard Taylor. Richard
Henry Stoddard, William Winter. Walt Whitman.
William Dean Howes-after his return from the
Venice consulate in 1s65-and other literary men OF
the day In the eleven years that followed his
editorial experience on The Home Journal he
devoted himself to writing. contributing TO con-
temporary periodicals and bringing out Pam
pnea and Other Poems" in 1861 out of His Head.
A Romance in Prose-" in 1852 two more collections
of poems in 1863 and 1850. and The Story of Bad
Boy il 1870.
Dr. Edward Everett Hale has told an anecdotc M
Mr.. Aldrich that had its beginning in those ea~ly
days. although the climax did not come until long
afterward.
when Lowell was editor of The Atlantic" DR..
Hale said. "he received a contribution from AL
drich then just starting in his literary career He
was much impressed with the merits of the article
and in sending the author a check for 1t lnclosed
a congratulatory note. advising him to Continue
writing and follow literature as a profession The
kind thoughtfulness appreciated and remem-
bered by Aldrich, and the note was carefully pre-
1SIFSu. AtdiS dLteiNdIut Wnen AlQrtCh himSpl
was the editor Of The Atlantic and Lowell sent
him contribution, he was gratiied at receiving a
copy of the note he had written years before
When the projectors OF Every Saturday" started
in 1870, a weekly periodical in Boston that the,,
hoped would become the American counterpart Of
the London Saturday Review they made Mr.
Aldrich ITS editor His editorship lasted as I0na,
as the review. which quietly passed OUT of exist
ence In 1919, the times appearing not TO have been
ripe for such an enterprise. Mr.. Aldrich's Mar.
jorie DaW and Other People," a volume of short
stories, was published In 1873. Cloth of Gold and
Other Poems and Prudence Palfrcy" a novel
Poems" in 1876, while I'm 1877 Mr. AIdrich is cred
tied with three titles: The Queen OF Sheba . n
romance of travel; Miss Mehitabel's SON and a
Rivermouth Romance" The saltwater Traesd -;
followed after lapse of three years
EDITED ATLANTIC MONTHLY"
When William Dean Howells resigned the editor.
ship of the Atlantic Monthly in 1881 Mr. AIdrfcA
was chosen to succeed him. and for nine wears no
guided the literary fortunes of that magazine -
which he had largely confined his contributions fo,
some time previous Emerson. LongfeloV Holmes
Lowell, ard all the rest of the brilliant New TGng-
land circle were then writing In Boston and with
all of them Mr.. Aldrich had come to nave the most
cordially intimate relations. When their manu-
scripts came 10 him as editor of the masa2fne he
had the forethought TO preserve the original copies
that was before the typewriter had come into
general use Some of the shorter manuscript
poems and characteristic letters Mr. Aldrieh framed
ana hung upon the walls of his study in his
Mount Vernon street house. Many Of the Others
he had beautifully bound. 'fnlaying' the separate
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