GILDER, RICHARD WATSON American editor and poet, was born in Bordentown, New Jersey, Feb. 8, 1844. Although in later life apropos of his honorary doctor's degrees from several institutions, he spoke of his "total freedom from collegiate training" and "general ignorance," Gilder early manifested a taste for letters, which his father, a minister and teacher, encouraged. As a boy he edited a paper of his own and had some poetry and even a youthful formless novel published in the newspapers ; and although his father's death and brother's ab sence in the Civil War, in which he himself had a brief experience as a soldier, threw a heavy domestic burden on his youthful shoul ders, forcing him to take the most lucrative position obtainable, he soon drifted into newspaper work. After several years with the Newark (New Jersey) Daily Advertiser, he founded, with R. New ton Crane, the Newark Morning Register. Because of the paper's financial weakness and final failure, Gilder for a year (1869-7o ) held a second editorial position on Hours at Home, and in 187o accepted the assistant editorship of Scribner's Monthly (later the Century Magazine), of which he became editor in 1881. Through out this time he was contributing verse to the magazines and reviews, and descriptive pieces to the newspapers, but the great development of his lyric impulse came after his introduction by Helen Hunt, later Mrs. Jackson, to his future wife, Helena de Kay. Miss de Kay, a granddaughter of Joseph Rodman Drake, was at that time a student of art at Cooper Union. Her knowledge of art and music widened Gilder's appreciation; and after their marriage June 3, 1874, their studio home became a social centre for some of the most distinguished men and women of the day. The immediate fruit of this new relationship was The New Day (1875), tender and beautiful love sonnets, which were followed by The Celestial Passion (1878), a sequel and companion volume. Gilder's later verse, although dominantly lyric, shows to some ex tent the factors so prominent in his life—patriotism, enthusiastic participation in the best artistic movements of the day and burning indignation at abuses. Not only is he credited with a revolution in magazine management, but his days were filled with public addresses, committee meetings, and disinterested labours of all sorts. Perhaps most memorable were his efforts on behalf of international copyright and as chairman of the New York Tene ment House Commission in 1894. Mrs. Gilder not only con tinued her painting but translated Sensier's biography of Millet, assisted in founding the Society of American Artists, and through out 35 years of companionship proved an ideal wife and mother. Gilder, who had several breakdowns because of overwork, died on Nov. 18, 1909.
Gilder published ten books of verse, Lyrics and Other Poems (1885) and Five Books of Song (1894), being collective editions of his work until those years. His complete poems appeared in 19o8. His full and upright life is best brought out in his Letters, edited by his daughter Rosamond Gilder 0916). Brander Matthews gives an admirable estimate, "Richard Watson Gilder," in the North American Review (Jan. 191o) .