An American journalist and author; born in Hamilton, Mass., in 1833; died there, Aug. 17, 1896. For several years she was instructor in the High School at Hartford, Conn. From 1865 to 1867 she was one of the editors of Our Young Folks. Besides numerous contributions to current literature, she has written under the pseudonym of “Gail Hamilton:” “Gala Days” (1863); “Woman’s Wrongs” (1868); “The Battle of the Books” (1870); “Woman’s Worth and Worthlessness” (1871); “The Insuppressible Book” (1885); “A New Atmosphere;” “Red-Letter Days;” “Country Living and Country Thinking;” “A Washington Bible Class;” “Twelve Miles from a Lemon;” and “Biography of James G. Blaine.”

Personal

  Gail Hamilton’s home at Hamilton was a big roomy house standing well back from the main road, nearly a mile below the Hamilton and Wenham railway station…. There has been a very generally received impression that her name was Mary Abigail Dodge, and that she took the last part of her middle name and the name of her native town for a nom de plume; but I have the authority of her sister for saying that this is incorrect, and that the name “Abigail,” so persistently hurled at her sister, was always distasteful to her. In her home and among her townspeople she was “Miss Abby.” The familiar name indicates something of the affection which all who knew her at all well came to have for her—an affection which had its origin in, and was fostered by, her unfailing desire to help others.

  Her circumstances were easy, and she found a great deal of pleasure in life with her work, her friends, and her frequent visits in the houses of her publishers, of Hawthorne, Mrs. Stowe, Mr. Whittier, Mr. Storrs, and others. She was radiant with youth and health and spirit and happiness, helping every one, making the world glad about her, and herself the pride and joy of a large and adoring family circle. Wherever she came the wind and the sunshine seemed to come in with her, so bright and breezy was her presence, with a thought, an opinion, an epigram, for everything, and sparkling with sweet and wholesome wit, fearlessly frank and tenderly kind. While her stricture was unsparing, her praise was equally so. Her spirit was something not to be daunted, and she was intrepid in maintaining her cause and fighting for faith or friend. But her magnanimity was as great as her courage. She was generosity itself, giving her personal care, her interest, her money in large sums, herself…. She dressed her part well, too, in simplest garb upon the street or in the galleries of Congress; but she was resplendent at home in her white silks, her gown of silver brocade, her pale peach satin, or whatever the occasion demanded. In summer she swung in her hammock at home in Hamilton, and wandered over her hills as if she had never known any other life. Although not beautiful, she was yet attractive, of about the medium height, and with a good figure. Her skin very fair and blooming, her mouth sweet, her teeth fine, her forehead white, her nose well cut, her bright brown hair curling naturally. She had great beauty of expression, and her smile was enchanting.

  Through her whole life, Miss M. A. Dodge insisted upon the separation of her private personality from that involved in her authorship and public writings. Letters sent to “Miss Abigail Dodge” she refused to answer. She always felt it a burden upon her to have the two sides of her life brought together, and believed that her power would have been magnified greatly if her pen-name had remained a secret. Yet she took the frankest pleasure in the measure of fame her published work brought her, and these letters reveal a desire for praise and appreciation which is almost childlike. In the face of this fact, the good taste of such an exposure as is here made [“Letters”] of her inmost heart is questionable; nor has the editor showed the highest qualities of her office in making her selections…. In spite of everything, there was little that Gail Hamilton did during her public life which was not interesting, and her writings, whether in public prints or to private persons, have the charm of a fascinating and always intelligent personality. She had a clever knack of hitting off the characteristics of those with whom she was brought into contact.

General

  It was good in thee to send me thy new book. I had read most of it before in the “Independent.” But a second perusal in fair type has been none the less satisfactory. It is one of thy very ablest books—shorn of some of the redundant wealth of diction which some reviewers complained of in thy first publications, but lacking none of their vigor and life and insight. I quarreled with thee often as I read, but, after all, laid the book down with a most profound respect for the wise little woman who wrote it. I shall not put my quarrels on paper, but when a kind Providence gives me an opportunity I shall “withstand thee to thy face.” I will simply say that my old bachelor reverence for woman has been somewhat disturbed by thy revelations. I am not going to condemn her because thee turn State’s evidence against her. Voter, or non-voter, I have faith in her.

  Miss Mary A. Dodge (Gail Hamilton) might be styled an essayist, but that would be but a vague term to denote a writer who takes up all classes of subjects, is tart, tender, shrewish, pathetic, monitory, objurgatory, tolerant, prejudiced, didactic, and dramatic by turns, but always writing with so much point, vigor, and freshness that we can only classify her among “readable” authors.

  All direct aims at the acquisition of a style, for the style’s sake, are always, in some sense or another, failures. We beg the lady’s pardon for mentioning it, but Gail Hamilton’s incisive, brusque, and forceful style—sometimes saucy, always clear, though often redundant, and strong beyond the average feminine quality—has done, without any premeditated guilt, a great deal of harm to the lower grade of literary women in America. The weaker woman, undertaking to speak through such a style, is simply and insipidly pert. She lacks the strong common sense and the height and breadth of imagination of her model, and so appears as ridiculous as if she were to “assist” at a New York party in an old dress of Queen Elizabeth or the soldier clothes of Jeanne d’Arc.

  Her earlier books had an immediate success and a wide circulation. Her later writings, though much more able, were on heavier themes and had not so great popularity.