A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Neal, Alice Bradley
NEAL, ALICE BRADLEY,
Was born in Hudson, New York, and was educated chiefly at a seminary for young ladies, in New Hampshire. In 1846, she was married to Mr. Joseph C. Neal, of Philadelphia, at that time editor of "Neal's Saturday Gazette," a man highly esteemed for his intellectual abilities, and warmly beloved for his personal qualities. Being left a widow a few months after her marriage, Mrs. Neal, although very young, was entrusted with the editorship of her husband's paper, which she has since conducted, in connection with Mr. Peterson, with remarkable ability, "The Saturday Gazette" continuing one of the most popular weekly papers of the city. She is principally known, as yet, as a contributor of tales and poems to the different periodicals of the day. In 1860, some of her writings were collected into one volume, under the title of "The Gossips of Rivertown; with Sketches in Prose and Verse." Mrs. Neal seems to have been endowed by nature with peculiar abilities for the sphere in which she has, by Providence, been placed. She began to write when quite a child; and in all her works she shows great facility in the use of her pen, a keen appreciation of the beautiful, and an almost intuitive penetration into the half-concealed springs that actuate the intercourse of society. Yet it is as a poetess, rather than a prose writer, that she will be chiefly admired, if we may judge of the ripened fruit by the fair blossoms of the early spring. The easy and harmonious flow of her verses, and the tenderness and feeling expressed in them, will make them always read and admired. In that most important literary department, writing books which children love to read and gain wisdom from reading, Mrs. Neal excels; her two charming little books, "Helen Morton's Trial" and "Pictures from the Bible," are deservedly popular.