Woman of the Century/Alice S. Deletombe

ALICE S. DELETOMBE DELETOMBE, Miss Alice S., poet, born in Gallipolis, Ohio, 2nd April, 1854. She is descended from an old French family long identified with the history of her native town. In early childhood Miss Deletombe displayed a talent for music, inherited from her mother, but delicacy of health prevented full development of that rich faculty, and the musical bent was turned into poetical channels, the eager soul finding that outlet of expression a silent solace through many sad years. Her sensitiveness is averse to criticism and publicity, a peculiarity which has ever been at war with her best interests. It is a remarkable fact that but few of her friends knew of her as a poet until recently, and that for over twenty years she has written for the mere pleasure of expressing her poetical thoughts, and not for any ulterior ambition or reputation. The admixture of French and German blood, she might say, "puts glamour into all I see." She has the French vivacity subdued by German sentiment, subtlety and harmony. The result is music and poetry. Some of her best poems were published for the first time in the "Magazine of Poetry" for January, 1891.