Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/342

306 the Oregon Historical Quarterly there is only one extended article about her, reprinted from the Oregonian soon after her death, and entitled "Historian of the Northwest." Oregon historians for half a century have taken her vast beneficiences to them for granted, and have not turned aside in warmth of gratitude from their own special projects for tribute or biography. In life she gave much and received little. After her death the complacency of acceptance has largely continued.

All this, however, did not affect the amount and quality of her work. She has left no evidence of unhappiness in her own attitude, no expression of complaint. Hers was one of the great motivations, coming wholly from within. She was the perfect observer, living quietly and moving unobtrusively in a colorful and historic land, all of which she saw, all of which she knew.

Although she was one of the ablest and probably the most voluminous of writers on Oregon, she does not now enjoy a popular fame corresponding to her importance. Thousands who have read her histories thought they were reading something by Hubert Howe Bancroft. Her other books, some of which were once widely read, are all now out of print and are sought by collectors, including The Early Indian Wars of Oregon, which the Oregon legislature hired her to write and the supply of which, on sale by the secretary of state's office, was long ago exhausted. The historic facts she so laboriously gathered and preserved are now mostly read in the books of others.

Among her writings is a book of poems and a combined volume of poems and tales, which add to her