Helen Maud Merrill
{{short description|American poet}}
{{Infobox writer
|name = Helen Maud Merrill
|image = HELEN MAUD MERRILL A woman of the century (page 510 crop).jpg
|caption = "A Woman of the Century"
|pseudonym = Samantha Spriggins
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1865|05|05}}
|birth_place = Bangor, Maine
|death_date = unknown
|death_place =
|resting_place =
|occupation = litterateur, poet
|nationality = American
|notableworks= "The Angel in the Stone"
|partner =
|relatives =
|signature =
}}
Helen Maud Merrill (pen name, Samantha Spriggins; May 5, 1865 - unknown) was an American litterateur and poet from Maine. Her first published poem was in the Waterville Sentinel, in 1882. During the decade of 1882–1892, Merrill contributed numerous poems to the St. Nicholas Magazine, Portland Transcript, the Gospel Banner and other journals. She also engaged in editorial work.{{sfn|Griffith|1888|p=838}}
Biography
Helen Maud Merrill was born in Bangor, Maine, May 5, 1865. From 1881 to 1887, she lived in Bucksport, Maine. Delicate in her childhood, she was cared for by her mother.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1897|p=500-01}}
In 1889, Merrill removed to Portland, Maine. There, she soon became connected with several literary associations. Early on, she showed a talent for composition, and from 1882, she was a contributor, both in prose and verse, to the newspaper press. Her humorous sketches over the pen name "Samantha Spriggins" had extensive reading. In 1885, she wrote a poem on the death of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, which was forwarded to his widow, and a grateful acknowledgment was received by the author in return. Her memorial odes and songs written for the anniversaries of the Grand Army of the Republic were appreciated. In Poets of Maine, she received honorable mention,{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1897|p=500-01}} and "The Angel in the Stone" was selected for insertion as a demonstration of her versification style.{{sfn|Moulton|1889|p=325}}
References
{{reflist}}
=Bibliography=
- {{Source-attribution| {{cite book|last=Griffith|first=George Bancroft|title=The Poets of Maine: A Collection of Specimen Poems from Over Four Hundred Verse-makers of the Pine-tree State|url=https://archive.org/details/poetsmaineacoll00grifgoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/poetsmaineacoll00grifgoog/page/n838 838]|edition=Public domain|year=1888|publisher=Elwell, Pickard & Company|location=Portland, Maine}} }}
- {{Source-attribution| {{cite book|last=Moulton|first=Charles Wells|title=The Magazine of Poetry and Literary Review|url=https://archive.org/details/magazinepoetrya06unkngoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/magazinepoetrya06unkngoog/page/n343 325]|edition=Public domain|year=1889|publisher=C.W. Moulton}} }}
- {{Source-attribution| {{cite book|last1=Willard|first1=Frances Elizabeth|last2=Livermore|first2=Mary Ashton Rice|title=American Women: Fifteen Hundred Biographies with Over 1,400 Portraits : a Comprehensive Encyclopedia of the Lives and Achievements of American Women During the Nineteenth Century|chapter=Helen Maud Merrill |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Woman_of_the_Century/Helen_Maud_Merrill |page= 500|edition=Public domain|year=1897|publisher=Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick}} }}
External links
- {{wikisource-inline|Woman of the Century/Helen Maud Merrill}}
- {{Internet Archive author |sname=Helen Maud Merrill}}
{{Portal|Biography}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merrill, Helen Maud}}
Category:Year of death unknown
Category:19th-century American poets
Category:19th-century American women writers
Category:19th-century pseudonymous writers
Category:Writers from Portland, Maine
Category:Writers from Bangor, Maine
Category:Pseudonymous women writers
Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century