" This seemed almost too foolish a
suggestion to contradict, but the editor of the "Offering"
thought it best to give the name and occupation of some of the
writers by way of refutation. It was for this reason (much
against my own wish) that my real name was first attached to
anything I wrote. I was then book-keeper in the cloth-room of the
Lawrence Mills. We had all used any fanciful signature we chose,
varying it as we pleased. After I began to read and love
Wordsworth, my favorite nom de plume was "Rotha." In the later
numbers of the magazine, the editor more frequently made us of my
initials. One day I was surprised by seeing my name in full in
Griswold's "Female Poet's;"--no great distinction, however, since
there were a hundred names or so, besides.
It seemed necessary to give these gossip items about myself; but
the real interest of every separate life-story is involved in the
larger life-history which is going on around it. We do not know
ourselves without our companions and surroundings.
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