The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Thaxter, Celia Laighton

THAXTER, thăks′tėr, Celia Laighton, American poet: b. Portsmouth, N. H., 29 June 1835; d. island of Appledore, Isles of Shoals, 26 Aug. 1894. She spent her childhood and much of her later life at the Isles of Shoals. In 1851 she was married to Levi Lincoln Thaxter, who was accustomed to visit the island long before they had become a popular summer resort. Her first published poem, ‘Landlocked,’ was printed by Lowell in the Atlantic. The motive of subsequent verse is also generally the sea and coast scenery, though the arts, particularly music, claimed some of her attention. Its note is one of much original power. Her works are ‘Poems’ (1872); ‘Among the Isles of Shoals,’ prose sketches (1873); ‘Poems’ (1874); ‘Drift Weed’ (1879); ‘Poems for Children’ (1884); ‘The Cruise of the Mystery’ (1886); ‘Idyls and Pastorals’ (1886); ‘The Yule Log’ (1889); ‘An Island Garden,’ a prose diary (1894); ‘Letters’ (1895); ‘Stories and Poems for Children’ (1895). A collected edition of the ‘Poems’ appeared in 1896. Consult the ‘Letters’; also an article in the New England Magazine (Vol. 24, pp. 166-72).