In the middle 1830’s Whittier with his mother, her sister “Aunt Mercy,” and his sister Elizabeth, “our youngest and our dearest” of “Snow Bound” memories, removed from his birthplace in Haverhill to the Amesbury home which grew to be so dear to him.
His townspeople held him in admiration and loving reverence. Some came to his home as honored citizens enter a city made free to them, and learned that his life was poetry no less than his writings.
In 1887 he said in a letter to the writer: “I think often of the old days when thy father was alive and sister Lizzie and we were all together.”
As the daughter of his physician and friend, she has given in “Whittier at Close Range” intimate glimpses of his life and character.
Frances Campbell Sparhawk.
Brookline, Massachusetts.
WHITTIER AT CLOSE RANGE
I
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