GILDER, RICHARD WATSON. Born in Bordentown, New Jersey, February 8, 1844;
died in New York City, 1909. Mr. Gilder was one of the great
editors of America, having been connected with the "Century
Magazine" (formerly "Scribner's Monthly") from
its founding in 1870 until his death about forty years later.
He was associate editor during the incumbency of J.G. Holland,
but at his death, in 1881, became editor-in-chief. When very
young, during the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania, he served
in Landis' Philadelphia Battery, and had also a short period
of studying law before he entered journalism. In his later years
Mr. Gilder was active in many social reforms and never permitted
literature to detach him from life. As a poet his work has a
fine, if sometimes austere, quality. In the lyric, however, he
was free and spontaneous and his best work is in a group of his
songs.
This biographical note is reprinted
from The Little Book of American Poets: 1787-1900. Ed.
Jessie B. Rittenhouse. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1915. |
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