Beautiful Snow
was unsigned, and no indication of the author was given either in the table of contents or in the index to the volume. It was not until 1869, when John Whitaker Watson published at Philadelphia a volume of verse called “Beautiful Snow and Other Poems,” that any authoritative indication was given as to who had written it.
Not that the publication of Mr. Watson’s book settled the matter. By no means! Probably no other poem in American literature has been so fought over. No less than seven people are said at one time or another to have claimed the high honor of being its author—Richard H. Chandler, William A. Silloway, William H. Sigourney, John McMasters, Dora Shaw, Dora Thorne and Henry W. Faxon—and some of them, at least, described in detail the circumstances under which it was composed.
A diverting anthology could be made of these narratives, but two of them will suffice here. Richard H. Chandler alleged that Mr. Watson had stolen the poem from him in revenge for a practical joke—and had even carried this revenge to the point of having the poem published in Harper’s Weekly. Mr. Chandler had not hitherto been known as a poet, but he disclosed the fact that he had written much, and added that the only reason no other poem of his had ever been published was because “the publishers sent them all back.” This he seemed
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