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although in later life he was restored to his class membership and received the degree of Master of Arts.
He went early into newspaper work in
Norwich and then in New York, going to the front for a time as newspaper correspondent during the
Civil War. He abandoned journalism after ten years or thereabouts, and became a member of the
New York Stock Exchange without giving up his literary life, a combination apt to be of doubtful success.
He married, at twenty,
Laura Hyde Woodworth, who died before him, as did one of his sons, leaving only one son and a grand-daughter as his heirs.
His funeral services took place at the Church of the Messiah on January 21, 1908, conducted by
the Reverend Dr. Robert Collyer and
the Reverend Dr. Henry van Dyke.
Those who happen to turn back to the number of the Atlantic Monthly for January, 1898, will read with peculiar interest a remarkable paper entitled “Our two most honored poets.”
It bears no author's name, even in the Index, but is what we may venture to call, after ten years, a singularly penetrating analysis of both
Aldrich and
Stedman.
Of the latter it is said: “His rhythmic sense is subtle, and he often attains an aerial waywardness of melody which is of the very essence of the lyric gift.”
