Miss Mehetabel's Son

by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907) was an American poet, novelist, traveler, and editor. His father's death in 1849 compelled Aldrich to abandon the idea of college and he entered his uncle's business office in New York at age 16 in 1852. Here he soon became a constant contributor to the newspapers and magazines. From 1856 to 1859 he was on the staff of the Home Journal and during the Civil War was editor of the New York Illustrated News. Meanwhile Aldrich had written much, both in prose and verse. His genius was many-sided. His successive volumes of verse, chiefly The Ballad of Babie Bell (1856), Pampinea and Other Poems (1861), Cloth of Gold (1874), Flower and Thorn (1876), Friar Jerome's Beautiful Book (1881), Mercedes and Later Lyrics (1883), Wyndham Towers (1889), and the collected editions of 1865, 1882, 1897 and 1900, showed him to be a poet of lyrical skill, dainty touch and felicitous conceit, the influence of Herrick being constantly apparent.

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1877

About the author

Aldrich travelled with his father in his early years. He returned to Portsmouth to study for college, but his father's death in 1852 required that he earn a living; first in a business office in New York, then, as a journalist. He contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers. Among them, the New York Illustrated News. In 1865, he moved to Boston where he was editor of Ticknor & Fields' Every Saturday magazine. In 1881, Aldrich was brought in as editor at the Atlantic Monthly, a position he held until 1890. He was a talented poet and published many volumes of verse.

Aldrich died at Boston on March 19, 1907. His last words were "In spite of it all, I'm going to sleep."