Inscribed on the title page ,With love & best wishes , from Edith , 1914 , this slim volume of Selected Poems , by American Ella Wheeler Wilcox , was purchased moons ago at a sale off Lygon Street , Melbourne, and has surfaced on Magnetic Island , Queensland.
With a deep interest in the occult, her poems were popular in the New Thought Movement. A 1915 booklet she penned , What I know about New Thought , sold 50,000 copies.
Her husband, Robert , after 30 years of marriage , died in 1916. They had made a pact that if one of them died they would return and communicate with the partner. As the weeks passed without any contact from him, her distress deepened. She sought the help of the leader of the Rosicrucian Philosphy in California , Max Heindel , and subsequently wrote :
Mr. Heindel assured me that I would come in touch with the spirit of my
husband when I learned to control my sorrow. I replied that it seemed strange
to me that an omnipotent God could not send a flash of his light into a
suffering soul to bring its conviction when most needed. Did you ever stand
beside a clear pool of water, asked Mr. Heindel, and see the trees and skies
repeated therein? And did you ever cast a stone into that pool and see it
clouded and turmoiled, so it gave no reflection? Yet the skies and trees were
waiting above to be reflected when the waters grew calm. So God and your
husband's spirit wait to show themselves to you when the turbulence of sorrow
is quieted.
Wilcox contributed to the war effort in 1917 in France where she recited a poem , The Stevedores, to a camp of 9000 American Army stevedore ..." Here's to the Army Stevedores , lusty and virile and strong ..."
FATEFUL ENCOUNTER WITH WIDOW
Eller Wheeler was born on a farm at Johnstown ,Wisconsin , on November 5,1850 . On the way to the governor's inaugural ball in Madison, she sat across from a young widow dressed in black and comforted her for the rest of the journey .
This sad experience prompted her to write the opening lines for the poem Solitude , for which she became well known over the years : Laugh, and the world laughs with you ; Weep , and you weep alone , For sad old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own ...The poem was first run in the New York Sun on February 25,1883, for which she was paid $5 .
The next year she married Robert Wilcox , their only child, a boy , died soon after birth ; they became interested in theosophy and spiritualism. Artists and literary types were entertained at the Wilcox residence.
The next year she married Robert Wilcox , their only child, a boy , died soon after birth ; they became interested in theosophy and spiritualism. Artists and literary types were entertained at the Wilcox residence.
Her autobiography , The Worlds and I , was published in 1918 and she died from cancer on October 30, 1919
The volume shown here includes Solitude and ends with Beyond in which she says that " over there " there is no sting in death . There is a pastedown illustration of a woman holding a fan with the heading An old Fan on the front board with coloured endpaper scenes , possibly of Edinburgh , as it was published in that city by W.P. Nimmon , Hay & Mitchell , printed by Morrison & Gibb Limited .
