—William Wilkie Collins.
William Wilkie Collins, a celebrated English novelist, was born in London, January 8, 1824, and died there September 23, 1889. He wrote: “The New Magdalen,” “No Name,” “Antonia,” “Basil,” “The Dead Secret,” “Armadale,” “Man and Wife,” “Poor Miss Finch,” “Miss or Mrs.?” “The Law and the Lady,” “The Two Destinies,” “Heart and Science,” “I Say No,” “The Legacy of Cain,” “The Moonstone,” and “The Woman in White,” his greatest novel.
The all-pervading greatness of Shakespeare lies in his comprehension of the ethical order of the world; [his dramas are] the truest literary product of the time, because the most perfect and concrete presentation of realized rationality.
—D. J. Snider.
Denton Jaques Snider, a distinguished American author, was born in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, January 9, 1841. He is best known by his famous work, “A Walk in Hellas.” His other works include: “Homer in Chios,” “Johnny Appleseed’s Rhymes,” “Ancient European Philosophy,” “Modern European Philosophy,” “Architecture,” “World’s Fair Studies,” “Commentaries on Froebel’s Play Songs,” “The Will and Its World,” “The Life of Frederick Froebel,” “The Father of History,” “Herodotus,” “Social Institutions,” “The State,” “A Tour in Europe,” “Cosmos and Diacosmos,” etc.
Softly, O midnight hours,
Move softly o’er the bowers
Where lies in happy sleep a girl so fair:
For ye have power, men say,
Our hearts in sleep to sway
And cage cold fancies in a moonlight snare.
“Softly, O Midnight Hours,”—Aubrey Thomas de Vere.
Aubrey Thomas De Vere, a famous Irish poet and descriptive and political essayist, son of Sir Aubrey De Vere, was born January 10, 1814, and died in 1902. Among his works are: “Poems,” “Irish Odes,” “Alexander the Great,” “Picturesque Sketches of Greece and Turkey,” “Constitutional and Unconstitutional Political Action,” “The Foray of Queen Meave and Other Legends of Ireland’s Heroic Age,” “The Sisters,” “Legends of the Saxon Saints,” “St. Peter’s Chains,” “Essays Chiefly on Poetry,” “Essays Chiefly Literary and Ethical,” “Recollections,” etc.
I know of no other English-speaking poet of the day who can turn a song so gracefully and easily as Mr. Stoddard can. Certain of his lyrics are, to my mind, unsurpassed for haunting charm of cadence. He has also written several odes of admirable nobility and stateliness.
“Poems of Wild Life,”—Charles G. D. Roberts.