Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/473

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ELLA HIGGINSON
431

Five or six years before Mariella she started a novel which she never finished. "Owing to illness, death and other misfortunes in her family, she was unfitted for work and was compelled to give it up." She worked for about three years on Mariella under difficulties. This one novel that she wrote seems to have had and to have retained a closer hold on her affection than any one of her other books.

The Voice of April-Land. New York. The Macmillan Company. 1906.

A book of poems. This had its reminiscences of Oregon, especially in its dedication, of which she has said:

The sonnet used in dedicating The Voice of April-Land to the pioneers, was meant more for those of Oregon than of this state, because those coming after 1850 at the latest were not pioneers. This is one of my best sonnets.

Alaska, the Great Country. New York. The Macmillan Company. 1908. A guide book and a book of travel, description, history and romance.

The Vanishing Race and Other Poems. Bellingham. C. M. Sherman. Press of S. B. Irish & Company. 1911.

A paper bound pamphlet of 28 pages containing 21 poems, among them the sonnet "The Pioneers of the West" and "The Little Church at Sitka" with the second stanza:

The little church at Sitka—
It was so dim and sweet!
Along the curving, silver beach
We heard the soft waves beat;
We knelt alone—while Holiness
Went by on sandalled feet.

As a writer of lyrics set to music by well-known composers Mrs. Higginson has been the most popular of all poets of the Pacific Northwest. At least 50 famous composers have found musical settings for her poems, among which have been "Four-Leaf Clover;" "Cradle Song of the Fisherman's Wife;" "Hey, Alders, Hang Thy Tassels Out;" "The Lamp in the West" and others. They have been sung by such noted