Woman of the Century/Louise Imogen Guiney

GUINEY, Miss Louise Imogen, poet and essayist, born in Boston, Mass., 17th January, 1861. She is of Irish descent, with a blending of French blood. From her father, Gen. P. R. Guiney, a brave soldier of the Union, who was also an excellent lawyer, his only child inherits her dauntless spirit and her critical faculty. Her education, both in private and public schools, and later in the Convent of the Sacred Heart, in Providence, R. I., was supplemented by constant affectionate study of English literature, which developed into fuller expression her inborn talent for writing. Beginning with fugitive essays and verse, which at once attracted attention, and were received from the first by such periodicals as "Harpers' Magazine" and the "Atlantic Monthly," she had made for herself an early and honorable place among literary people at the appearance of her first volume. That was a book of poems, entitled "Songs at the Start" (Boston, 18S4). and was followed by "Goose-Quill Papers" (Boston, 1885), a collection of prose sketches, "The White Sail and Other Poems" (Boston, 1887), and " Brownies and Bogies," a book of fairy lore, compiled from "Wide Awake" (Boston, 1888). She has also published "Monsieur Henri, A Foot Note to French History" (New York, 1892). a concise and romantic memoir of Henri de la Kochejaquelein. the brilliant young hero of La Vendee. The quality of Miss Guiney's work is of such subtle and delicate beauty as to be difficult of classification. Her origin] thought has felicity of form and is brightened by a wit which reminds one of her favorite authors in the golden age of 17th LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY. Century English. Her poetry, always interesting, is dominated, sometimes over-strongly, by peculiarities of phrasing, but ranges at its best from tender and pure sentiment to a splendid concentration of dramatic force. Both forms bear mark of conscientious and studious revision. Miss Guiney is a lover of nature, fond of all out-door sports, an adept with canoe and bicycle, and able to walk any distance without fatigue. Her poetic gift is in the heroic vein. She is an excellent scholar and has so much of the classic spirit that she has won the sobriquet of the "Sunny Young Greek."