Emily Elizabeth Veeder

Emily Elizabeth Veeder (, Ferris; 1841 – April 27, 1898) was an American novelist and poet. Her published works were Her Brother Donnard (1891), and In the Garden and Other Poems (1894). Her Brother Donnard proved her gift as a story-teller. Although this book was her first, the second edition was bought out within a year. Among her most popular poems were "The Twilight Hour," "In My Dreams," and "A Voice." She wrote after having become infirm in a railway accident. Veeder died in 1898. Early life and education Emily Elizabeth Ferris was born in 1841, in the valley of Lake Champlain, in New York. On one side of the family, she was the granddaughter of Judge McOmlier. Her paternal grandmother was a poet. Bishop Daniel Ayres Goodsell was her cousin. Veeder was a student in Packer Collegiate Institute, Brooklyn, New York. She wrote verses at the age of nine, but it was the direct influence of her brother-in-law, Asahel Stearns, a professor of law, and of the notable people who gathered about him and her sister, which elevated her taste for literature and rendered it absorbing. Her culture was increased by travel and by contact with many others. She married Herman Veeder, on September 28, 1876. Career Her first book was Her Brother Donnard (Philadelphia, 1891). Veeder occasionally contributed verses to prominent periodicals. Her first appearance with a collected volume of poetry, however, was in the book to which the first poem, "In The Garden", gave its title (1895). She arranged several of her poems to music of her own composition. Much of the time, she was exhausted by her disability. In her hours of pain, she rose above physical suffering and her habitual temper was buoyant and helpful. She possessed originality and piquancy. A keen observation of human nature and a nice discrimination of character give point to her conversation and her literary work. She was very facile with anecdotes. Some of her purely outdoor work shows her genuine love of nature; while in her versified story, "Entranced", her narrative power stood out, and her "Austin's Painting of Christ" revealed the true devotional bent of her mind.