Richard Watson Gilder was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and editor.

Life and career

Gilder was born at Bordentown, New Jersey

Bordentown, New Jersey

Bordentown City is in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 3,924. Bordentown is located at the confluence of the Delaware River, Blacks Creek and Crosswicks Creek...

. He was the son of Jane (Nutt) Gilder and the Rev. William Henry Gilder

William Henry Gilder (clergyman)

William Henry Gilder was a Methodist clergyman.-Biography:...

, and educated at his father's seminary in Flushing, Queens

Flushing, Queens

Flushing, founded in 1645, is a neighborhood in the north central part of the City of New York borough of Queens, east of Manhattan.Flushing was one of the first Dutch settlements on Long Island. Today, it is one of the largest and most diverse neighborhoods in New York City...

. There he learned to set type and published the St. Thomas Register. Gilder later studied law at Philadelphia

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

.

During the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, he enlisted in the state's Emergency Volunteer Militia

Militia

The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...

 as a private in Landis's Philadelphia Battery at the time of the Robert E. Lee

Robert E. Lee

Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....

's 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania

Gettysburg Campaign

The Gettysburg Campaign was a series of battles fought in June and July 1863, during the American Civil War. After his victory in the Battle of Chancellorsville, Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia moved north for offensive operations in Maryland and Pennsylvania. The...

. After the Confederates

Confederate States Army

The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...

 were defeated in the Battle of Gettysburg

Battle of Gettysburg

The Battle of Gettysburg , was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac...

, Gilder and his unit were mustered out in August. The death of his father, while serving as chaplain of the Fortieth New York Volunteers, obliged him to give up the study of the law.

A little later, he became a reporter on the Newark (New Jersey)

Newark, New Jersey

Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...

 Advertiser, of which he was later editor. With Newton Crane, he founded the Newark Register. In 1870, he became editor of Hours at Home, a monthly magazine published by Scribner's. It merged with Scribner's Monthly

Scribner's Magazine

Scribner's Magazine was an American periodical published by the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons from January 1887 to May 1939. Scribner's Magazine was the second magazine out of the "Scribner's" firm, after the publication of Scribner's Monthly...

, which was edited by J. G. Holland. Gilder became managing editor. When Holland died in 1881, Gilder became editor. In April 1891, the monthly was renamed as The Century Magazine

The Century Magazine

The Century Magazine was first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City as a successor to Scribner's Monthly Magazine...

, and Gilder remained its editor until his death. Gilder's assistant editor at Century was Sophia Bledsoe Herrick

Sophia Bledsoe Herrick

Sophia Bledsoe Herrick was a science writer, editor, and literary critic.Born 26 March 1837, the daughter of Albert Taylor Bledsoe, of Gambier, Ohio, Sophia moved to New York after her marriage to the Reverend James B. Herrick, by whom she had several children. The couple separated when Herrick...

.

Gilder took an active interest in all public affairs, especially those which tend towards reform and good government, and was a member of many New York clubs. He was one of the founders of the Society of American Architects, of the Authors' Club

Authors' Club

The Authors' Club is a British membership organization established as a place where writers could meet and talk. It was founded by the novelist and critic Walter Besant in 1891....

, and of the International Copyright League. He was a founder of the Anti-Spoils League and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was a close friend of George MacDonald

George MacDonald

George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister.Known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels, George MacDonald inspired many authors, such as W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle. It was C.S...

, Scottish poet, author, and preacher. They collaborated in various ventures such as MacDonald's American lecture tour in the '70s. Gilder received the degree of LL.D. from Dickinson College

Dickinson College

Dickinson College is a private, residential liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Originally established as a Grammar School in 1773, Dickinson was chartered September 9, 1783, five days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, making it the first college to be founded in the newly...

 in 1883.

Gilder was a member of the Simplified Spelling Board

Simplified Spelling Board

The Simplified Spelling Board was an American organization created in 1906 to reform the spelling of the English language, making it simpler and easier to learn, and eliminating many of its inconsistencies...

. He was a leader in the organization of the Citizens' Union, a founder and the first president of the Kindergarten Association, and of the Association for the Blind. Gilder was chairman of the first Tenement House Commission in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. During his service on the commission, he arranged to be called whenever there was a fire in a tenement house, and at all hours of the night he risked his health and his life itself to see the perils besetting the dwellers of the tenements, in order to make wise recommendations as to legislation that would minimize these perils.

Family

On 3 June 1874, Gilder married a daughter of Commodore George Coleman De Kay

George Coleman De Kay

George Coleman De Kay was a naval officer.-Biography:He was prepared for college, but ran away to sea. He became a skilful navigator, and took vessels built by Henry Eckford to South America...

, Helena de Kay (1846–1916). She was a talented painter and a founder of the Art Students League and Society of American Artists

Society of American Artists

The Society of American Artists was an American artists group. It was formed in 1877 by artists who felt the National Academy of Design did not adequately meet their needs, and was too conservative....

. She also modeled for, and was an unrequited love of, the painter Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer was an American landscape painter and printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th century America and a preeminent figure in American art....

. Gilder and de Kay were the models for the characters Thomas and Augusta Hudson in Wallace Stegner

Wallace Stegner

Wallace Earle Stegner was an American historian, novelist, short story writer, and environmentalist, often called "The Dean of Western Writers"...

's Pulitzer-prize winning novel, Angle of Repose. Their son, Rodman de Kay Gilder (1877–1953), became an author and married Comfort Tiffany, a daughter of Louis Comfort Tiffany

Louis Comfort Tiffany

Louis Comfort Tiffany was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art Nouveau  and Aesthetic movements...

. A celebrated plaster sculpture of the family by Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Augustus Saint-Gaudens was the Irish-born American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who most embodied the ideals of the "American Renaissance"...

 is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...

.

Gilder's sibling

Sibling

Siblings are people who share at least one parent. A male sibling is called a brother; and a female sibling is called a sister. In most societies throughout the world, siblings usually grow up together and spend a good deal of their childhood socializing with one another...

s were William Henry Gilder

William Henry Gilder

William Henry Gilder , was an American soldier, journalist, explorer and writer.-Biography:He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of a clergyman, also named William Henry Gilder...

, an explorer; Jeannette Leonard Gilder

Jeannette Leonard Gilder

Jeannette Leonard Gilder was a pioneer for United States women in journalism.-Biography:She was a daughter of the clergyman William Henry Gilder. She was connected from 1869 with various newspapers in Newark and New York...

, a journalist; and Joseph Benson Gilder

Joseph Benson Gilder

Joseph Benson Gilder was an American editor, brother of Richard Watson Gilder and Jeannette Leonard Gilder and the explorer William Henry Gilder....

, an editor.

Selected works

• The New Day (1875)
• The Celestial Passion(1887)
• The Great Remembrance
• Five Books of Song (1894)
• In Palestine, and Other Poems (1898)
• Poems and Inscriptions (1901)
• In the Heights (1905)
• A Book of Music (1906)
• Grover Cleveland
  Grover Cleveland
  Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
  
  : A Record of Friendship

Gilder's daughter, Rosamond Gilder, edited Letters of Richard Watson Gilder, published by Houghton Mifflin Company in 1916.

External links