Text: Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Ollive Mabbott, “Lydia M. Child” The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Vol. IV: The Literati of New York City (2026), pp. 127-129 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 127:]

LYDIA M. CHILD.(1)

Mrs. Child has acquired a just celebrity by many compositions of high merit, the most noticeable of which are “Hobomok,”(2) “Philothea,”(3) and a “History of the Condition of Women.”(4) “Philothea,” in especial, is written with great vigor, and, as a classical romance, is not far inferior to the “Anacharsis”(5) of Barthelemi; — its style is a model for purity, chastity and ease. Some of her magazine papers are distinguished for graceful and brilliant imagination — a quality rarely noticed in our countrywomen. She continues to write a great deal for the monthlies and other journals, and invariably writes well. Poetry she has not often attempted, but I make no doubt that in this she would excel. It seems, indeed, the legitimate province of her fervid and fanciful nature. I quote one of her shorter compositions, as well to instance (from the subject) her intense appreciation of genius in others as to exemplify the force of her poetic expression: —

“MARIUS AMID THE RUINS OF CARTHAGE.

Mrs. Child, casually observed, has nothing particularly striking in her personal appearance. One would pass her in the street a dozen times without notice. She is low in stature and slightly framed. Her complexion is florid; eyes and hair are dark; features in general diminutive. The expression of her countenance, when animated, is highly intellectual. Her dress is usually plain, not even neat — anything but fashionable. Her bearing needs excitement to impress it with life and dignity. She is of that order of beings who are themselves only on “great occasions.” Her husband is still living.(7) She has no children. I need scarcely add that she has always been distinguished for her energetic and active philanthropy.

[[Notes]]

[page 128:]

1. Lydia Maria Francis Child, February 11, 1802 - October 20, 1880, is a lady remembered for one fine poem, quoted in full by Poe.

2. Hobomok, a Tale of Early Times was published at Boston, 1824.

3. Philothea was published, Boston, 1836; reviewed by Poe in the Messenger, September, 1836. The review with slight revision appeared in the Broadway Journal on May 31, 1845 upon receipt of a new edition of that year. Philothea is curiously naive; the author supposed the ancient Greeks far less sophisticated than they were.

4. History of the Condition of Woman, appeared in Boston, 1825.

5. The Voyage of the Young Anacharsis by the Abbé Jean-Jacques Barthélemy (1716-1795), published in French in 1789, often was reprinted and translated. It is a guide-book of Ancient Greece, which Poe praises too highly.

6. The “great poem” was given in the Rural Repository; September 1833 — hardly an original publication. It was inspired by a picture of John Vanderlyn (1776-1852), the first American artist to study in France. It was exhibited in Paris in 1805 and obtained a gold medal. It is now in the M. H. DeYoung Memorial Museum, San Francisco, and is reproduced by Horn, Great Men and Famous Women, 1894, I, 32 and Neuhauss, History and Ideals of American Art, 1931, 43. [page 129:]

7. David Lee Child (1794-1874) is in the Dictionary of American Biography [[vol. IV, p. 65]]. [[Mabbott begins a note at this point “He was” but does not complete the sentence. He might have continued: “a journalist and a strong opponent of slavery. They married in 1828; the couple never had children.” — JAS]]