Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/310

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GILDER


GILDER


York city for vocal compositions, and t'wo prizes from the Abt society, Pliiladelpliia. He was organist of the New Jerusalem church, Cin- cinnati, Ohio, 1872-73, when he returned to Philadelphia as choir master of St. Clement's Protestant Episcopal church. He was awarded a prize of SIOOO by the Cincinnati May festival in 1883, for his setting of the 46th Psalm, the judges being Theodore Thomas, C. Saint-Saens, and Carl Reinecke. The degree of Mus. Doc. was conferred upon him by the University of Penn- sylvania in 1893. Among his better known com- positions are Forty- Sixth Psalm for solo, choriis and orchestra ; Prayer of Praise for solo, chorus and orchestra; Symphony in C for orchestra; a nonet for piano, strings and wind; a quintette for piano and strings ; and a trio for piano and strings, besides songs and church music.

QILDER, Jeannette Leonard, journalist, was born in Flusliiug, L.I., Oct. 8, 1849; daughter of the Rev. William Henry and Jane (Nutt) Gilder; and granddaughter of John and Sarah (Leon- ard ) Gilder. Before she was nine j-ears old she began to write and when she was little more than fourteen her fii-st story, called " Ka- tie's Escapade," was printed in the New York Weekly Dispatch. ■When seventeen she contributed to the Newark Daily Ad- vertiser, of which her brother, Richard

Watson, was editor. He then started a morning paper in Newark to which ^ /~7 <v^ ^® contributed a

/ — '■^^"^^^ column every day

of " Breakfast-Table Talk." Shortly afterward she was advanced to the position of dramatic and musical critic, and from 1869 was regularly engaged in journalism. She became a correspondent of the New York Tribune and in 1875 joined the staff of the New York Herald as literary, musical and dramatic critic. She was also the New York correspondent of the London Academy. In 1881, in company with her brother, Josepli B. , she established the Critic, in which her special department was "The Lounger." She wrote much for other papers, especially the New York World and the Chicago Trilnine. She also wrote several plays, among them lieing " Quits " in 1876, which was successfully brought out in the Chestnut Street theatre, Philadelphia, by F. F. Mackay. She dramatized A Wonderful Woman for Rose Eytinge and Sevenoaks for John T. Raymond ; and is the


autlior of the novel Taken by Sier/e (1887). She also edited Ilijiresentatim Poems by Living Poets and I'eii Piirtrnits nf Literary Women.

QILDER, John Francis, musician, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., April 3, 1837; son of the Rev. William Henry and Jane (Nutt) Gilder. He attended various public and private schools and at the age of eight began to take music lessons. Subsequentl}' he studied with Donat Saer, William Mason and Robert Goldbeck. As a concert pianist he made several tours of the principal cities of the United States and became well known through his compositions whose numerous titles include; TaranteUe Fantastiqne, Cotton Field Dance, Hondo Joycux, Danse Africaine antl Amarnnthns.

QILDER, Joseph B., journalist, was born at St. Thomas Hall, Flushing, L.I., N.Y., June 29, 1858; son of the Rev. William Henry and Jane (Nutt) Gilder. He entered the U.S. naval academy in 1872 and resigned in 1874. He was a newspaper reporter in Newark, N.J., 1874r-77; wrote New York letters to the Boston Advertiser, the Buffalo Courier and other journals; was a reporter and assistant city editor of the New York Herald, 1878-80, and with his sister, Jeannette L. , estab- lished the Critic, of which he was an editor from January, 1881. He became president of the Critic company in January, 1893, and literary adviser to the Century company in 1895. He was treasurer of the loan exhibition at the National academy of design (December, 1883), which added §15,000 to the Statue of Liberty pedestal fund. He was treasurer of the Ameri- can copyright league in 1886 and an organizer and the first secretary of the University Settle- ment society of New York city. He contributed prose and verse to the magazines and edited James Russell Lowell's Impressioiis of Spain (1899); Orations and After-Dinner Speeches of ■Chauncey M. Depexe (1890) ; Life and Later Speeches of Chauncey 31. Depexe (1894) ; also (with Jeannette L. Gilder) Essays from the Critic (1883); and Authors at Ilume (1889).

QILDER, Richard Watson, editor, was born at Bordeutown, N.J., Feb. 8, 1844; son of the Rev. William Henry and Jane (Nutt) Gilder. He attended his father's school, first at Bordentown, and afterward when it was removed to Flushing, L.I. At the latter place in 18.56 he published the St. Thomas Bei/ister, a small newspaper, for which he set the type himself, and in 18G0 he and two other boys. William F. and Joseph W. Allen, united in editing in Bordentown a cam- paign journal in supjiort of Bell and Everett. In 1863 he enlisted in Landis's Philadelphia battery and served through the " emergency " campaign in Pennsylvania. After that he began to study law, but the death of his father in 1864 necessitat-