Portrait of Willis by Mathew Brady studios, circa mid-1850s
Born
(1806-01-20)January 20, 1806 Portland, Maine, U.S.
Died
January 20, 1867(1867-01-20) (aged 61) Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, U.S.
Resting place
Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Occupation
Editor Literary critic Poet
Signature
Nathaniel Parker Willis (January 20, 1806 – January 20, 1867), also known as N. P. Willis,[1] was an American writer, poet and editor who worked with several notable American writers including Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He became the highest-paid magazine writer of his day. His brother was the composer Richard Storrs Willis and his sister Sara wrote under the name Fanny Fern. Harriet Jacobs wrote her autobiography while being employed as his children's nurse.
Born in Portland, Maine, Willis came from a family of publishers. His grandfather Nathaniel Willis owned newspapers in Massachusetts and Virginia, and his father Nathaniel Willis was the founder of Youth's Companion, the first newspaper specifically for children. Willis developed an interest in literature while attending Yale College and began publishing poetry. After graduation, he worked as an overseas correspondent for the New York Mirror. He eventually moved to New York and began to build his literary reputation. Working with multiple publications, he was earning about $100 per article and between $5,000[2] and $10,000 per year.[3] In 1846, he started his own publication, the Home Journal, which was eventually renamed Town & Country. Shortly after, Willis moved to a home on the Hudson River where he lived a semi-retired life until his death in 1867.
Willis embedded his own personality into his writing and addressed his readers personally, specifically in his travel writings, so that his reputation was built in part because of his character. Critics, including his sister in her novel Ruth Hall, occasionally described him as being effeminate and Europeanized. Willis also published several poems, tales, and a play. Despite his intense popularity for a time, at his death Willis was nearly forgotten.
^Baker, 3
^Beers, 262
^Baker, 88
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visit to NathanielParkerWillis in New York, wanting to see the now eight-years old Imogen again. Willis's second wife, Cornelia Grinnell Willis, who had...
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Poe did not remain in close contact with her brother Edgar, with NathanielParkerWillis writing to him, "You seem as neglectful of your sister as I am...
perceive distinctly which is which". Nevertheless, NathanielParkerWillis found the work "exquisite". Nathaniel Hawthorne found Mardi a rich book "with depths...
for 1850, no. 36, August 31, 1850, with an introductory note by NathanielParkerWillis. "The Philosophy of Composition" 1850 in poetry Kagle, Steven E...
American democracy, a parody of the work of Charles Dickens and NathanielParkerWillis, and is also understood as a critique on 19th-century medical practices...
entertained by telling stories to his admirers. As the writer and editor NathanielParkerWillis wrote, "With his cigar and his Spanish eyes, he talks Typee and...
an annual gift book that collected essays, stories, and poetry. NathanielParkerWillis edited its first edition, released in the fall of 1844. For a time...
serving as a pallbearer at the funeral of friend and publisher NathanielParkerWillis on January 24, 1867, Lowell decided to produce another collection...
Mississippi Idlewild, a home in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, built by NathanielParkerWillis Dr. Franklin King House-Idlewild, Eden, North Carolina, listed...
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