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Whittier at close range

Chapter 2: FOREWORD
By Frances C. Sparhawk
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About This Book

A close, personal portrait by a longtime neighbor and friend presents intimate glimpses of the poet's home life, friendships, and habits, concentrating on his Amesbury household, study and garden-room furnishings, and the artifacts and visitors that shaped his daily world. It traces themes in his verse—reverence for nature, sympathy with the lowly, and spiritual monotheism—links to the influence of Burns, and his commitment to abolition and human brotherhood. Anecdotes, descriptions of rooms and gifts, and recollections of visitors illuminate his character, poetic sensibility, and the domestic settings that inspired much of his work.

TO THE MEMORY OF
MY FATHER
F. C. S.

FOREWORD

Thanks are due to Messrs. J. B. Lippincott and Company, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, and “The Congregationalist” for the permitted use of articles written for them and now revised with the new material for the book.

“You do, indeed, know a great deal about uncle,” wrote Whittier’s niece, Mrs. Pickard, to the writer.

In the middle 1830’s Whittier with his mother, her sister “Aunt Mercy,” and his sister Elizabeth, “our youngest and our dearest” of “Snow Bound” memories, removed from his birthplace in Haverhill to the Amesbury home which grew to be so dear to him.

His townspeople held him in admiration and loving reverence. Some came to his home as honored citizens enter a city made free to them, and learned that his life was poetry no less than his writings.

In 1887 he said in a letter to the writer: “I think often of the old days when thy father was alive and sister Lizzie and we were all together.”

As the daughter of his physician and friend, she has given in “Whittier at Close Range” intimate glimpses of his life and character.

Frances Campbell Sparhawk.

Brookline, Massachusetts.