The New International Encyclopædia/Thaxter, Celia

THAX′TER, Celia [Laighton] (1836-94). An American poet, born at Portsmouth, N. H. Her father was keeper of the United States Government lighthouse on the Isles of Shoals, where her girlhood and much of her after life were passed. In 1851 she married Levi Lincoln Thaxter, a Browning scholar. Mrs. Thaxter's poetry was reflective of her quiet life on the islands. It expressed with simplicity and delicacy her feeling for the sea and its perils, and also for the gentler aspects of nature. Her works include: Poems (1872); Among the Isles of Shoals (1873), a series of papers begun in the Atlantic Monthly in 1867; Poems (1874); Drift-Weed (1879); Poems for Children (1884); The Cruise of the Mystery, and Other Poems (1886); Idyls and Pastorals (1886); The Yule Log (1889); An Island Garden (1894); Stories and Poems for Children (1895).—Her son Roland (1858—), botanist, born at Newton, Mass., professor at Harvard since 1891, wrote numerous monographs and contributions to scientific periodicals in cryptogamic botany.