Driftwood

the great West, and to unite his fortunes with its own, Mr. . Singletary and his wife soon removed to Middle Tennessee, and from that State finally went to Kentucky, where, in the village of Feliciana, Mrs. Bedford was born and passed the early years of her life. Inheriting the refined tastes and sensibilities of both father and mother, she soon developed a rare talent for literature, which only freed itself by breathing out its spirit in verses that even then were remarkable for that soft melody and grace which have since characterized her work. The warm sympathetic nature of the child was intensified and quickened into poesy by the natural beauty and gentle peace of her surroundings, and her earliest published poems were well received. One of her sweetest and most popular poems, My Childhoods Home, was written in her fifteenth year. In a revised and more extended form it appears in her first collection of poems. Adopting the pen name of Lenora she contributed to peri odicals work that wonthe highest commendation, and decided her to renewed efforts in the field of literature. While yet a girl she became a teacher in the schools of her vicinity, in which occupation she continued until her marriage, VI. in 1857, to John Joseph Bedford, a descendent of Gunning Bed ford, one of the signers of the Constitution of the United States. Being a man of refined tastes and acknowledged talent he was a fit husband for his gifted wife. In the financial panic of 1857 her husbands fortunes were so much impaired that, busied with the duties of wife and mother and oppressed with lifes cares, the pen was laid aside not to be taken up again of peace and prosperity shone through the lifting clouds. till the storm of war ceased and the sunshine In 1878 she accompanied her husband to Florida, where he went in the interest of his health. In Milton, in that State, he took charge of the Standard to which Mrs. Bedford contribu ted with so much success that she was induced to drop her nom de plume and write over her own name. In the year 1881, while still residing in Florida, her first col lection of poems, A Vision and Other Poems, was brought out by the publishing house of Robert Clark Company, Cincinnati. A London publisher visiting Florida saw a copy of the work and secured permission to reproduce it in England, and accord ingly issued it a few months subsequently. This volume received the most flattering recognition. It was at once recognized to be the work of a poet. Paul H. Hayne spoke warmly in its favor. Oliver Wendell Holmes, writing to Mrs...