STEDMAN, EDMUND CLARENCE ( 1833— ). An American poet, critic, and essayist, born at Hartford, Conn., and educated at Yale. In 1852 he entered journalism as editor of the Norwich (Conn.) Tribune and the following year he be came editor of the Winsted (Conn.) Herald, where be remained till 1855. Ile then went to New York and in 1859-61 was on the staff of the Nem York Tribune. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was sent to the front by the New York ll'orb/ as war correspondent, and there con tinued till 1863. In the meantime he studied law and was for a time private secretary to At torney-General Bates in Washington, D. C. In 1864 he was interested in constructing and financiering the first Pacific railroad. The fol lowing year he entered Wall Street, New York, as a broker and banker, becoming a member of the Stock Exchange and holding his seat till 1900. His chief volumes of verse arc: Poems, Lyrical and Idyllic (1860) ; Alice of Monmouth, An, Idyll of the (treat War (1864) ; The Blame less Prince (1869) ; Hawthorne and Other Poons (1877) ; Lyrics and Idylls (1879) ; and Poems :Vow First Collected (1897). His prose works
include The Victorian Poets (1875) and The Poets of America (1885) and The Nature and Elements of I'oetry (1892), a work of sound ap preciation and technical knowledge. These vol umes of critical writing he supplemented by A Victorian Anthology (1895) and An American Anthology (1900). He was also editor, with Ellen M. Hutchinson, of A Library of American Literature (1888-90, 11 vols.), and, with George E. Woodberry. of the Works of Edgar Allan Poe (1895, 10 vols.). Upon the death of Lowell many accorded to Mr. Stedman the primacy among living American poets and critics.