Richard Watson Gilder (1844-1909)
Poet & Editor, of New York City & "Four Brooks Farm" Tyringham, Massachusetts
He was born at Bordentown, New Jersey, studied law in Philadelphia and fought as a Private in Landis' Philadelphia Battery. After the Civil War he became a journalist, becoming one of the foremost figures in New York literary society. He was editor-in-chief of The Century Magazine which under him became one of the most esteemed periodicals in the country, and he published the works of William Dean Howells, Henry James, Mark Twain, and Walt Whitman. He founded the Anti-Spoils League and co-founded the celebrated children's magazine St. Nicholas; the Society of American Architects; the Authors' Club; and, the International Copyright League. He was a Member of the American Academy of Arts & Letters and received the degree of LL.D. from Dickinson College. In 1874, he married Helena, daughter of Commodore George Coleman De Kay and maternal granddaughter of the poet Joseph Rodman Drake. Mrs Gilder was well-known as a painter and a well-known hostess. They lived between their townhouse at 55 Clinton Place in New York City and their summer home at Tyringham in the Berkshires, "Four Brooks Farm," that played host to many distinguished visitors, notably their first guest there, U.S. First Lady Mrs Grover Cleveland. They had 4-children (listed).
