Watson Gilder, in the editorial department of Scribner's Monthly, now the Century. Literary editor and afterwards dramatic and musical critic of the New York Herald from 1875 to 1880. In 1881, in connection with her brother, Joseph B. Gilder, started The Critic, now Putnam's Magazine, of which she is associate editor. Was for many years correspondent of the Boston Saturday Gazette and the Boston Evening Transcript, also the London Academy, and New York correspondent for the Philadelphia Press and Record. Regular correspondent of the Chicago Tribune. Has written plays and stories for magazines. Is the author of "Taken by Siege," "The Autobiography of a Tomboy," "The Tomboy at Work." Edited "Essays from the Critic," and "Representative Poems of Living Poets" and "Pen Portraits of Literary Women" and "Authors at Home."
HELEN HINSDALE RICH.
Born June 18, 1827, on her father's farm in Antwerp, Jefferson County, New York. She is known as the poet of the Adirondacks. At twelve years of age she wrote verses and was proficient in botany. Being obliged to read the debates in Congress aloud to her father, the speeches of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster made her an ardent patriot, and a deeply interested politician. She was the first woman in Northern New York to embrace Woman Suffrage, and lectured during the Civil War for the Union Cause. Among her writings, her "Madame de Stael" has the endorsement of eminent scholars as a literary lecture. She excels in poems of the affections.
MARY ALICIA OWEN.
Was born January 29, 1858, in St. Joseph, Missouri. Daughter of James A. Owen, a lawyer and writer on finance, and Agnes Jeannette. After several years of successful newspaper work she turned her attention to short stories and became a contributor to many of the leading periodicals; later turned her attention and devoted herself to the collection of the curious and romantic myths and legends of the Mississippi Valley. Her most notable success has been the discovery of the Voodoo stories and ritual. Her papers on this subject were read before the American Folk Lore Society at one of its annual meetings in Philadelphia, also before the Boston Folk Lore Society and the International Folk Lore Congress in London, England. She has prepared books on the Voodoo magic and the myths of the rubber devil.
ABBY HUTCHINSON PATTON.
Was born August 20. 1829. in Milford, New Hampshire. She was well known as Abby Hutchinson, being a member of the well-known Hutchinson family, whose gift of song made them famous. Mrs. Patton came of a long line of musical ancestors, especially on the maternal side. In 1839 she made her first appearance as a singer, in her native town. On this occasion the parents and their thirteen children took part. In 1841, with her three younger brothers, she began her concert career. They sang in the autumn and winter, devoting the spring and summer to their farm, while their sister pursued her studies in the
