Woman of the Century/Emma Huntington Nason

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2280747Woman of the Century — Emma Huntington Nason

NASON, Mrs. Emma Huntington, poet and author, born in Hallowell, Me., 6th August, 1845. She is the daughter of Samuel W. Huntington, whose ancestors came from Norwich, Eng., to Massachusetts in 1633. Her mother was Sally Mayo, a direct descendant of Rev. John Mayo, the Puritan divine, who was one of the founders of the town of Barnstable, Cape Cod, and the first pastor of the Second Church in Boston. Mrs. Nason's EMMA HUNTINGTON NASON. early days were passed in Hallowed Academy, where she distinguished herself as a student, excelling in mathematics and the languages. In 1865 she was graduated from the collegiate course of the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, in Kent's Hill, and spent the two following years in teaching French and mathematics. In 1870 she became the wife of Charles H. Nason, a business man of Augusta, Me., and a man of refined and cultivated tastes, and they now reside in that city. At an early age Mrs. Nason began to contribute stories, translations and verses to several periodicals, using a pen-name. "The Tower," the first poem published under her true name, appeared in the Atlantic Monthly " in May, 1874. It quickly won recognition and praise from literary critics. Since that time Mrs. Nason has written chiefly for children in the columns of the best juvenile magazines and papers. Occasionally, poems for children of a larger growth have appeared over her signature in leading periodicals. She has also written a valuable series of art papers and many interesting household articles, as well as short stories and translations from the German. She has published one book of poems, "White Sails" (Boston, 1888). Her verses entided "Body and Soul," which appeared in the "Century" for July, 1892, have been ranked among the l>est poems published in this country in recent years. Mrs. Nason devotes much time to literature, art and music, in each of which she excels.