Woman of the Century/Harriet McEwen Kimball

HARRIET McEWEN KIMBALL. KIMBALL, Miss Harriet McEwen, poet, born in Portsmouth, N. H., 2nd November, 1834. She is a daughter of the late Dr. David Kimball, a refined and scholarly man. She was a delicate child, and her education was given to her in her own home, mainly by her cultured and accomplished mother. Miss Kimball began to write at an early age, and her work was criticised by her parents, who encouraged her to develop and exercise her undoubted poetic gift. She has been interested in charitable work throughout her life, and a Cottage Hospital in Portsmouth is one of the monuments that attest her philanthropy. She is an active church member. In all her literary work she is careful and painstaking. Her first volume of verse was pubished in 1867. In 1874 she published her "Swallow Flights of Song," and in 1879 "The Blessed Company of All Faithful People." In 1889 her poems were brought out in a full and complete edition. Most of if her poems are religious in character. Many of them are hymns, and they are found in all church collections of late date. Her devotional poems are models of their kind, and her work is considered unique in its rather difficult field. She lives in Portsmouth, devoted to her literary work and her religious and philanthropic interests.