Background

Hamilton Wright Mabie was born on December 13, 1846, in Cold spring, New York, United States. He was the son of Levi J. Mabie, a business man engaged in the lumber, and later in the boot and shoe, industry, and his wife Sarah (Colwell) Mabie. Hamilton came of mingled Scotch and English blood on his mother's side and of French Huguenot on his father's. The American progenitor of the family was Sergeant Gaspard Mabille, who was driven from his estate at Navy, in Anjou, after the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. The name was Americanized to Mabie within a few generations after Sergeant Mabille settled in New York state. Hamilton grew up in Cold spring, Buffalo, and Brooklyn, where his parents lived at various times during his youth.

Education

Prepared for college by a private tutor, Mabie was ready for entrance at sixteen but, being held back a year on account of his youth, he occupied the interval reading law in the office of a Brooklyn attorney. During his four years at Williams College, where he was a member of the class of 1867, he occupied his leisure chiefly in reading. After graduating he returned to the law, received the degree of Bachelor of Laws from Columbia in 1869, and was admitted to the New York bar in the same year.

Career

About 1876 Mabie began to think more definitely of a career in letters and in time determined to gratify his literary tastes while retaining his law practice. Through Edward Eggleston, then at the height of his fame, Mabie in 1879, became a member of the staff of the Christian Union, renamed in 1893 the Outlook, and thus began his lifelong association with Lyman Abbott. He never joined another staff, though he was for a time contributing editor of the Ladies' Home Journal and helped to edit the Library of the World's Best Literature.

He began his work for the Christian Union as editor of a department of church news, but he revealed critical talent and was soon made literary editor. Gradually he also began to read manuscripts and write editorials. In 1884, he became associate editor, a post which he occupied with the Christian Union and from 1893 until his death with the Outlook. He had already begun to write stories for children, and his series of Norse Stories Retold from the Eddas, originally published in the Christian Union, appeared in book form in 1882.

In 1888, he moved to Summit, New Jersey, where a great deal of his journalistic work was done. During the years that followed, he poured forth books in rapid succession. In 1915, Mabie suffered a sharp recurrence of writer's cramp which had occasionally afflicted him, and he was forced to dictate.

In December, 1915, Hamilton was stricken with dilatation of the heart at the University Club in Philadelphia and was never again able to resume active work. He died a year later, of pneumonia developing from cardiac asthma, and was buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery at Tarrytown.

Achievements

• Hamilton Wright Mabie became a successful writer and was influential, through his writings and his lectures, in fostering the development of literary culture in the United States. Among his most charming books were the series of Myths (1905), Legends (1906), Heroes (1906), and Heroines that Every Child Should Know (1908). A special room in Williams College Library perpetuates his memory.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Myths That Every Child Should Know

    (This collection of literature attempts to compile many of...)

  • In Arcady (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from In Arcady HE tenderest green was on the fol...)

  • Essays in Literary Interpretation (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Essays in Literary Interpretation Old decla...)

  • Norse Stories: Retold from the Eddas (The Hippocrene Library of World Folklore)

    (Retells classic stories from Scandinavian mythology, incl...)

  • Norse Mythology: Great Stories from the Eddas

    ( Rooted in an oral tradition, fantastic sagas of Norse m...)

  • Boys' and Girls' Bookshelf, Vol. 15: Book of Wonders and Curious Things (Part 1) (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Boys' and Girls' Bookshelf, Vol. 15: Book of...)

  • Boys' and Girls' Bookshelf, Vol. 18: Historic Tales and Golden Deeds, (Part 4) (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Boys' and Girls' Bookshelf, Vol. 18: Histori...)

  • Science, Invention, and Plant Life: The Young Folks Treasury, Vol. 8

    (Hardcover Book)

  • Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know

Views

Quotations: “Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love. ”

“Nothing is lost upon a man who is bent upon growth; nothing wasted on one who is always preparing for - life by keeping eyes, mind and heart open to nature, men, books, experience - and what he gathers serves him at unexpected moments in unforeseen ways. ”

“The mother loves her child most divinely, not when she surrounds him with comfort and anticipates his wants, but when she resolutely holds him to the highest standards and is content with nothing less than his best. ”

“All the queens of my acquaintance have children, some three, some seven, and some as many as twelve; and my queen has not one. I feel ill-used. " So he made up his mind to be cross with his wife about it. But she bore it all like a good patient queen as she was. ”

“Art involves forgetfulness of immediate ends; complete surrender to the inward impulse to give form to the beautiful idea or image of truth because it is beautiful. ”

“On every side were stretched the bodies of men and animals apparently lifeless. ”

Membership

Mabie was the first secretary of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Personality

Both in his personal life and in his criticism, Mabie was remarkable for a peculiar gentleness and serenity. He was actively interested in education and social betterment and served various organizations.

Connections

On October 11, 1876, Mabie married Jeannette Trivett, daughter of the Rev. Robert Trivett, of Poughkeepsie.

Father:

Levi Jeremiah Mabie

10 February 1821 - 19 March 1883 Was a business man engaged in the lumber and in the boot and shoe, industry.

Mother:

Sarah Colwell Mabie

14 April 1823 - 22 February 1905

Brother:

Edgar Washborn Mabie

September 1857 - 24 November 1914

Sister:

Jennie Mabie Judson

1849 - 1924

Wife:

Jeanette Trivett Mabie

15 August 1853 - 23 November 1936

Daughter:

Lorraine Trivett Mabie

12 November 1877 - 23 September 1906

Daughter:

Helen Rockwell Mabie

10 November 1882 - 13 August 1952

References

• The Life and Letters of Hamilton W. Mabie