Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/839

798 suffered for years from ill health. Miss Davidson was delicate from infancy. When eighteen months old, she suffered from typhus fever which threatened her life. Her first literary acquisition indicated her after course. Her application to her studies at school was intense. Her early poems were of great merit. While devoting her time and attention to her invalid mother, she wrote many beautiful poems, the best known of which is her "Amir Khan" and a tale of some length called "The Recluse of Saranac." "Amir Khan" has long been before the public. Its versification is graceful and the story of orientalism beautifully developed and well sustained; as a production of a girl of fifteen it is considered prodigious. Many of her poems are addressed to her mother. "The Fear of Madness" was written by her while confined to her bed and was the last piece she ever wrote. The records of the last scenes of Lucretia Davidson's life are scanty. Her poetical writings which have been collected amount in all to 278 pieces of various length. The following tribute paid her by Mr. Southey is from the London Quarterly Review, whose scant praise of American productions is well known. "In these poems ("Amir Khan," etc.) there is enough of originality, enough of aspiration, enough of conscientious energy, enough of growing power to warrant any expectations, however sanguine, which the patron and the friends and parents of the deceased could have formed." Her death occurred August 27, 1825, in Plattsburg, New York.

Few women of America enjoy greater fame than Julia Ward Howe, the author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." She can be classed as an essayist, poetess, philanthropist, and public speaker. She was born in New York City, May 27, 1819. Her parents were Samuel and Julia Cuttler Ward. She included among her ancestors some of the descendants of the Huguenots, the Marions of South Carolina, Governor Sam Ward of Rhode Island, and Roger Williams, the apostle of religious tolerance. Her father being a banker and a man of means gave her every advantage of education and accomplishment. In 1843 she married Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, and they spent some time abroad. In 1852 she published her first volume of poems; in 1853 a drama in blank verse, and during the war other works and patriotic songs. In 1867 while she and her husband were visitors in Greece they won the affection and gratitude of the people by aiding them in their struggle for national independence. In 1868 she took an active part in the suffrage movement. She preached, wrote and lectured for many years. She died in the summer of 1910, but her fame will ever be linked with the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

No name is more beloved among the girls of America of former days and present times than that of Louisa May Alcott, the author of "Little Women," a book dear to the heart of every American girl. Miss Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, November 29, 1832. Her parents were charming, cultivated people. Her father, Amos Bronson Alcott, became a teacher. He taught in