Home › W › Willis, Nathaniel Parker

Willis, Nathaniel Parker

author, poet, was born Jan. 20, 1806,, in Portland, Maine. He was a once popular New York writer, much overrated in the earlier part of his career, and now neglected. His prose, though pleasing, is almost all of ephemeral merit, and his verse is sentimental rather than thoughtful. The latter includes the once widely read Sacred Poems; Melanie; Lady Jane, and Humorous Poems; and Poems of Passion; while his prose comprises Hurry Graphs; People I Have Met; Pencillings by the Way; Inklings of Adventures; Letters from Under a Bridge; Famous Persons and Places; A Summer Cruise in the Mediterranean; The Convalescent; Out-Doors at Idlewild; Paul Fane, a novel; Al Abri, and other works of lesser importance. He died Jan. 20, 1867, in Hudson, N. Y.