(Excerpt from Lyrics My harp has only simple strings, My ...)
Excerpt from Lyrics My harp has only simple strings, My hands are weak and small; I only sing of simple things In Slmpler words than all. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Eliza Jane Poitevent Holbrook Nicholson was born on March 11, 1849 in Pearlington, Hancock County, Mississippi, United States. She was the daughter of William J. Poitevent and Mary A. (Russ) Poitevent. Her mother being an invalid, Eliza grew up under the care of an aunt near what is now Picayune, Mississippi. Eliza began to write verses "while still almost a mere girl, " contributing to New Orleans papers, and to the Home Journal and the Ledger of New York.
In July 1867 Eliza was graduated from the Amite (Louisiana) Female Seminary.
Nicholson's first productions were published in a little sheet called the South, whose editor, J. W. Overall, gave her encouragement. Her verses appeared over the signature Pearl Rivers, a nom de plume most happily chosen, since the Pearl River ran close to her girlhood home, and in its valley she spent her most impressible years.
Her poems attracted the attention of Colonel A. M. Holbrook, editor of the New Orleans Picayune, and in the summer of 1870 poems by Pearl Rivers began to be a feature of the Sunday issue. Her career and that of the paper from that time were closely connected.
It has been frequently stated that she became literary editor of the Picayune in 1874 at a weekly salary of $25.
Actually, her poems began to appear after July 1870.
Her position as "literary editor" seems to have meant that her verses were regularly printed on the front page of the Picayune, for she signed no books reviews or dramatic criticisms, although she did contribute some short prose narratives. Holbrook sold the paper to a company of New Orleans merchants in January 1872. A selection from her newspaper verses was printed in 1873 entitled Lyrics by Pearl Rivers. The volume was warmly reviewed in the Picayune on April 6, 1873, and was praised by many, including Paul Hamilton Hayne. In December 1874 Holbrook regained control of the Picayune, but his illness and death (January 1876) prevented him from putting the paper on its feet, so that his wife was left with a debt of $80, 000 and a dubious title to the paper.
About six months after Holbrook's death George Nicholson acquired an interest in the paper. A native of Leeds, England, he had gone to New Orleans in 1842 and had worked up to the position of business manager of the Picayune.
From that time on the affairs of the paper gradually improved, until it became a prosperous enterprise. Mrs. Nicholson took an intimate interest in her paper. She introduced a society column into the Sunday issue, an innovation which conservative New Orleans society regarded at first with mild dismay.
The Lyrics of 1873 and three small pamphlets contain all her accessible poems, numbering about fifty in all. Her best poems deal with some phase of country life and are filled with memories of swamp maples in bud, wild briers, and partridge-calls. The ambitious dramatic monologues Hagar and Leah, in spite of some good lines, are rhetorical rather than passionate. The sincerity of her emotions is usually evident, though sometimes obscured by inadequate technique and expression. It was the feeling in her poems which appealed to her many readers.
(Excerpt from Lyrics My harp has only simple strings, My ...)
Eliza supported many public movements, particularly the efforts of Sophie B. Wright to improve public education. Her decisions were rapid and intuitive rather than cautious, but were usually lucky.
Although Nicholson was slight in build and unassuming in manner, she succeeded in leaving vivid impressions of her personality.
On May 18, 1872 Eliza married A. M. Holbrook.
On June 27, 1878, Mrs. Holbrook and George Nicholson were married.
