Woman of the Century/Margaret Deland

DELAND, Mrs. Margaret, poet and novelist, born in Pittsburgh, Pa., 23rd February, 1857. Her maiden name was Margaret Campbell. She was reared in Pittsburgh, in the family of her uncle, Hon. Benjamin Campbell. When she was seventeen years of age, she went to Pelham Priory, a boarding school in New Rochelle, near New York, Citv. Afterwards she entered the Cooper Institute and took the course in industrial design. A little later and she taught drawing and design in the Normal College of New York for a short time. In 1880 she became the wife of Lorin F. Deland and with her husband removed to Boston, Mass., which city has since been her home. Mr. Deland is possessed of literary tastes and ability, and his critical interest is of much assistance to bet in her work. Mrs. Deland began to write in 1884. Her introduction to the public was a curious incident. While walking one morning with Miss Lucy Derby in Boston, they stepped into a market to make some purchases. While they were waiting, Mrs Deland busied herself in writing several stanzas of rhyme on a piece of brown paper lying on the counter. Miss Derby read the verses with an exclamation of surprise and delight. The poem was the dainty and widely known "Succory." Miss Derby insisted on sending it to the editor of "Harper's Magazine." The result was that she began to publish. Several of her poems were sent to the same magazine without her knowledge. Others followed in the "Century" and other magazines. These were received with such favor that she collected her poems and had them published under the title of "The Old Garden and Other Verses" (Boston, 1886). Not yet conscious of her power, she issued only a limited edition, which was exhausted within a few days. Since then that volume has gone through six editions. Her next and greatest work was the celebrated novel, "John Ward, Preacher" (Boston, 1888), which passed through six editions in five months. She has since written a descriptive work, "Florida Days " (Boston, 1889), a second novel entitled "Sidney" (Boston, 1890), and short stories for the "Atlantic Monthly" and "Longman's Magazine."