Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/456

 else. I am deeply indebted to several Oregon people who recognized writing ability in me during my girlhood—most of all, my idolized sister, who was much older than I, and who was the joy and solace of my life to the day of her death. After her, Dr. S. D. Pope, of Oxford College, whose private school I attended—being much younger than most of the others—and who greatly praised my early attempts at writing. Captain H. L. Wells, editor of Portland's old West Shore, was a heaven-sent friend. Without his encouragement, patience and kindness, I could never have struggled on—for those were dark days for young writers.

What caused me to become a writer? Nothing but the consuming desire to write. It is the only thing I ever really wanted to do. I wrote my first poem when I was eight—a lonely little girl on the farm; my brother, who was also much older than I, laughed himself to tears, and my indulgent father "hoped I wouldn't make myself ridiculous"; but my mother kissed me and my sister took me into her arms. I did not try again until I was fourteen, when I wrote an intense love poem, which was printed. I still have it and when I feel like blushing scarlet—a read it again!

Now, as to Oregon's claiming me as one of her writers: Markham was born in Oregon and left when five years old; yet Oregon claimed him for her poet laureate. (And, by the way, I am poet laureate of Washington.)

Her maiden name was Ella Rhoads. She was born in Kansas and crossed the plains to Oregon as an infant with her parents in a two-seated carriage. That was sometime in the 60's. The exact date of her birth she has never given to the public during 40 years as a prominent writer. This feminine reticence she has kept always graciously but always successfully, in the face of all sorts of persistent and ingenious inquisition by those who have written hundreds of articles about her. So to satisfy the chronological needs of