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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002
With the Civil War a new literary leadership rose out of a profound
change in the writers' point of view. The young critics, novelists and poets,
who were to influence American taste for a generation, were acutely sensitive to the problems of a Nation passing from agricultural infancy to industrial youth. Beginning with Richard Watson Gilder's inquiry -- now
considered mild -- and culminating in the harsh portraits by Stephen Crane,
the theme of social exploration dominates the period up to 1900.
In certain respects Richard Watson Gilder (1844-1909) may be considered the first of the moderns, typifying in breadth of artistic and literary
appreciation and in the solid virtues of conscientious citizenship two
streams of American impulse toward a more civilized life. Born in Bordentown, he left the State while still a child and did not return until the
Civil War period. After some reporting experience on the Newark Daily
Advertiser, he engaged with Newton Crane in the founding of the Newark Morning Register. In 1870 he was appointed assistant editor of Scribner's Magazine, under J. G. Holland; and eleven years later, at the death
of Holland, the magazine became the Century and Gilder its editor in
chief.
In this position, which he held until his death, Gilder brought his creed
of citizenship to bear upon the problems of late Victorian America. He
was an early advocate of rapprochement between North and South, a stern
opponent of Tammany corruption and an active participant in an early
slum-clearance campaign in New York City. Gilder was an unfailing champion of high standards and "good taste," and his editorial attitude had a
marked influence on the literary scene in America. Of his numerous volumes of verse, two of the best were tributes to his wife -- The New Day,
a series of love sonnets, and its sequel, The Celestial Passion. Though
New Jersey saw little of him after the 1880's, the State may justly claim
him as a distinguished native.
Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833-1908) combined shrewd business
ability with considerable talent as poet and critic. His charming worldliness manifested itself in his conversational powers, shown at their best in
literary gatherings at his homes in Newark, Elizabeth, and Irvington,
where he lived from 1860 to 1870. Hither came Gilder and his sister
Jeannette, a pioneer in the writing of literary news; Mary Mapes Dodge,
excited by her plans for children's literature; Richard Henry Stoddard,
at the start of his career as poet and critic; and the translator-poet, Bayard
Taylor, who was then completing his notable translation of Goethe's
Faust. Stedman's Victorianism, on the one hand, and his grasp of sound
literary principles, on the other, greatly influenced these youthful "squires
of poesy," as they romantically styled themselves. His gift of graceful
lyricism is expressed in such poems as "Pan in Wall Street" and "Creole
Lover's Song"; his anthologies of American and British poets are comprehensive; and with George E. Woodberry he edited the standard edition
of Edgar Allan Poe.
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