Richard Watson Gilder
Gilder, Richard Watson (gĭl'dər), 1844-1909, American editor and poet, b. Bordentown, N.J. In 1869 he became an editor of the magazine Hours at Home, which merged with Scribner's Monthly in 1870. Just before Scribner's became the Century, Gilder succeeded J. G. Holland as its editor (1881), a position he retained until his death. The Century was a leading publication during his life. In 1874 he married an artist, Helena de Kaye, and their home became a literary and artistic center; the Authors' Club was founded there in 1882. Gilder's volumes of poetry include The New Day (1875) and The Fire Divine (1907).
Bibliography
See his letters (ed. by his daughter, Rosamund Gilder, 1916).
His sister was Jeannette Leonard Gilder, 1849-1916, American editor and novelist, b. Flushing, N.Y. She was an assistant editor of Scribner's Monthly. With her brother Joseph Gilder, she was coeditor of the Critic from 1881 to 1885, after which she was sole editor until 1906. A keen dramatic and music critic, she wrote columns for various newspapers.
Houghton Mifflin Chronology of US Literature:
Top
Works by Richard Watson Gilder
Quotes By:
Top
Richard Watson Gilder
Quotes:
"A man not perfect, but of heart so high, of such heroic rage, That even his hopes became a part of earth's eternal heritage."
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
Richard Watson Gilder
Richard Watson Gilder (February 8, 1844[1] – November 19, 1909)[2] was an American poet and editor.
|
Contents
|
Life and career
Gilder was born at Bordentown, New Jersey. He was the son of Jane (Nutt) Gilder and the Rev. William Henry Gilder, and educated at his father's seminary in Flushing, Queens. There he learned to set type and published the St. Thomas Register.[3] Gilder later studied law at Philadelphia.
During the American Civil War, he enlisted in the state's Emergency Volunteer Militia as a private in Landis's Philadelphia Battery at the time of the Robert E. Lee's 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania. After the Confederates were defeated in the Battle of Gettysburg, Gilder and his unit were mustered out in August. The death of his father, while serving as chaplain of the Fortieth New York Volunteers, obliged him to give up the study of the law.[3]
A little later, he became a reporter on the Newark (New Jersey) Advertiser, of which he was later editor. With Newton Crane, he founded the Newark Register. In 1870, he became editor of Hours at Home, a monthly magazine published by Scribner's. It merged with Scribner's Monthly, which was edited by J. G. Holland. Gilder became managing editor. When Holland died in 1881, Gilder became editor. In April 1891, the monthly was renamed as The Century Magazine, and Gilder remained its editor until his death.[3] Gilder's assistant editor at Century was Sophia Bledsoe Herrick.[4]
Gilder took an active interest in all public affairs, especially those which tend towards reform and good government, and was a member of many New York clubs. He was one of the founders of the Society of American Architects, of the Authors' Club, and of the International Copyright League. He was a founder of the Anti-Spoils League and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was a close friend of George MacDonald, Scottish poet, author, and preacher. They collaborated in various ventures such as MacDonald's American lecture tour in the '70s. Gilder received the degree of LL.D. from Dickinson College in 1883.[5]
Gilder was a member of the Simplified Spelling Board. He was a leader in the organization of the Citizens' Union, a founder and the first president of the Kindergarten Association, and of the Association for the Blind. Gilder was chairman of the first Tenement House Commission in New York City. During his service on the commission, he arranged to be called whenever there was a fire in a tenement house, and at all hours of the night he risked his health and his life itself to see the perils besetting the dwellers of the tenements, in order to make wise recommendations as to legislation that would minimize these perils.[3]
Family
On 3 June 1874, Gilder married a daughter of Commodore George Coleman De Kay, Helena de Kay (1846–1916).[3] She was a talented painter and a founder of the Art Students League and Society of American Artists. She also modeled for, and was an unrequited love of, the painter Winslow Homer.[6] Gilder and de Kay were the models for the characters Thomas and Augusta Hudson in Wallace Stegner's Pulitzer-prize winning novel, Angle of Repose. Their son, Rodman de Kay Gilder (1877–1953), became an author and married Comfort Tiffany, a daughter of Louis Comfort Tiffany. A celebrated plaster sculpture of the family by Augustus Saint-Gaudens is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[7]
Gilder's siblings were William Henry Gilder, an explorer; Jeannette Leonard Gilder, a journalist; and Joseph Benson Gilder, an editor.
Selected works
- The New Day (1875)
- The Celestial Passion(1887)
- The Great Remembrance
- Five Books of Song (1894)
- In Palestine, and Other Poems (1898)
- Poems and Inscriptions (1901)
- In the Heights (1905)
- A Book of Music (1906)
- Grover Cleveland: A Record of Friendship
Gilder's daughter, Rosamond Gilder, edited Letters of Richard Watson Gilder, published by Houghton Mifflin Company in 1916.
References
- Notes
- ^ " The Magazine of Poetry and Literary Review, vol.1, pg.3
- ^ Author and Book Info .com - The Companion to Online and Offline Literature
- ^ a b c d e
"Gilder, Richard Watson". The Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1918. - ^ Hollis, C. Carroll (1979). "Sophia Bledsoe Herrick". In Flora , Joseph M.. Southern writers: a biographical dictionary. LSU Press. pp. 223–. ISBN 978-0-8071-0390-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=EpX4H4JdZOgC&pg=PA223. Retrieved 18 January 2011.
- ^ "Gilder, William Henry". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900.
- ^ “The Courtship of Winslow Homer,” Magazine Antiques, Feb 2002. Retrieved 20 August 2010.
- ^ http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/astg/ho_2002.445.htm
- Bibliography
- Cousin, John William (1910). " Gilder, Richard Watson". A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons. Wikisource
- This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.
- Van Rensselaer, Schuyler (March 3 1922). "Richard Watson Gilder - Personal Memories". The Outlook 130: 376–379. http://books.google.com/?id=yYfriDCW2NEC&pg=PA376. Retrieved 2009-07-30.
External links
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Richard Watson Gilder |
 |
Wikisource has original works written by or about: |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
Columbia Encyclopedia
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.
Read more
Houghton Mifflin Chronology of US Literature
The Chronology of American Literature, edited by Daniel S. Burt. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Read more
