Margaret Junkin Preston (1820–1897)

Southern poetess of a religious cast; born at Philadelphia, on the 29th of March 1820; died at Baltimore, MD, on the 28th of March 1897. In 1856 Mrs. Preston published Silverwood, a book of memories of child life. In 1866 appeared Beechenbrook, a collection of war poems written by the light of “Confederate candles.” She also published Old Songs and New (1870); Cartoons (1875); For Love’s Sake (1886); Colonial Ballads, Sonnets, and Other Verses (1887); Aunt Dorothy (1890); etc. Much of her work is delicate in finish and pure in sentiment, the product chiefly of deep religious feeling.