. The poet-novelist is apt to put into his prose
a good deal of the same charm and the same picturesque choice of phrase
and image that characterize his verse; while it does not follow that the
novelist who at times writes verse--like George Eliot, for
example--succeeds in giving a distinctly poetic quality to prose, or
even wishes to do so. Among authors who have displayed peculiar power
and won fame in the dual capacity of poet and of prose romancer or
novelist, Sir Walter Scott and Victor Hugo no doubt stand pre-eminent;
and in American literature, Edgar Allan Poe and Oliver Wendell Holmes
very strikingly combine these two functions. Another American author who
has gained a distinguished position both as a poet and as a writer of
prose fiction and essays is Thomas Bailey Aldrich.

[Illustration: THOMAS B. ALDRICH]

It is upon his work in the form of verse, perhaps, that Aldrich's chief
renown is based; but some of his short stories in especial have
contributed much to his popularity, no less than to his repute as a
delicate and polished artificer in words. A New Englander, he has
infused into some of his poems the true atmosphere of New England, and
has given the same light and color of home to his prose, while imparting
to his productions in both kinds a delightful tinge of the foreign and
remote. In addition to his capacities as a poet and a romancer, he is a
wit and humorist of sparkling quality. In reading his books one seems
also to inhale the perfumes of Arabia and the farther East, blended with
the salt sea-breeze and the pine-scented air of his native State, New
Hampshire.

He was born in the old seaside town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire,
November 11th, 1836; but moved to New York City in 1854, at the age of
seventeen. There he remained until 1866; beginning his work quite early;
forming his literary character by reading and observation, by the
writing of poems, and by practice and experience of writing prose
sketches and articles for journals and periodicals. During this period
he entered into associations with the poets Stedman, Stoddard, and
Bayard Taylor, and was more or less in touch with the group that
included Walt Whitman, Fitz-James O'Brien, and William Winter. Removing
to Boston in January, 1866, he became the editor of Every Saturday, and
remained in that post until 1874, when he resigned. In 1875 he made a
long tour in Europe, plucking the first fruits of foreign travel, which
were succeeded by