HIRAM RICH - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 06/15/1890 - HFSID 298195

HIRAM RICH
Two-page, handwritten letter to fellow poet E. C. Stedman
Autograph Letter signed: "Hiram Rich", 2 pages (integral leaf), 4¾x7¾. Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1890 June 15. To E. C. Stedman, New York, in full: "Your kind favor of two months ago came duly to hand & would have been immediately acknowledged but for three things, illness, business and laziness. Your picture and Mr. Arthur's gave me so much pleasure that I wonder how anything could have prevented me from thanking you by return mail. But now I recall I could hardly sign my name to the needed checks at the time. How pleasant to look in upon you at 'Keep Rock', but I've taken enough upon me this summer to bring some scuppers down at least. I have often wondered how you could do such work & so much of it, as you have done. I certainly how you'll find time to run down upon our Cape someday. I hope do meet your friend Alber again as I recall his brief visit here some years since. Kindly remember me to your son, and accept my thanks for your kindness. Yours truly". Poet Hiram Rich (1832-1901), a lifelong resident of Glouchester, Massachusetts, worked for 50 years at the Cape Ann National Bank and served on the school and library committees, but is best remembered as a poet. His poems, published in Atlantic Monthly, Scribner's and Lippincott's, vividly described life on the New England coast. One of his poems was read at the ceremony marking Gloucester's 250th anniversary (1897). A posthumously published collection, Leaves on the Tide (1913), included his beloved poem "In the Sea," commemorating sailors lost at sea. Fellow American poet E.C. Stedman (1833-1908) was published in many of the same magazines. One vertical and one horizontal fold. Lightly creased. Lightly worn. Lightly soiled. Ink note (unknown hand) at top right corner of first page. Otherwise, fine condition.