Frances Lewis Brackett Damon was an American poet. It was said the she wrote verse nearly every week since 1880, though she destroyed many of her poems. There is a peculiarity about her verse-form in the cases of two of her best poems: matching first lines. She was also an essayist, and an editor of literary magazines, which had national renown. Using the pseudonym of “Percy Larkin", she wrote many short stories for young persons, and some reform correspondence. She was the author of a novel, Idlewise, a novelette, A Daughter of Pharaoh, and a long poem, “The Wind-Flower".
Early life and education
Frances Lewis Brackett Damon was born on May 21, 1857 in a farmhouse on the outskirts of Dexter, Maine. She lived for seventeen years on a farm in that town. Of her parentage and ancestry she wrote:— "I can zig-zag back to a good deal of English, a little Irish, and a probable line of Scotch. My mother's parents were pioneers in Maine. They were, Joel Towle, of fine, slim build, keen intellect, high blood, Universalist belief; and Lois Roberts, robust, genial, level-headed, Quaker-trained. Father was the youngest of twelve children, a factory-boy, learning all the ins and outs of the trade, and for the greater part of his life supervising a large section. When his health failed he went to farming. The son of Grandfather, Joel's brother, is George Makepeace Towle." Her elder sister, some ten years older, left Damon to play by herself. Of her religious experience, she stated:— "When I was fourteen, on a certain day, all alone in my little room upstairs, I must believe, I gave my heart to Christ, and he drew instantly near to me. In a moment the Bible, which had hitherto been the dullest of dry books, opened up to me inconceivable splendors." Her taste in literature was correspondingly improved and reformed, so that from "dribbling story papers" she turned to "the sternest truths." Eventually, she became fond of poets. John Greenleaf Whittier was her first favorite, and later, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, and Robert Burns. At the age of fourteen, she became deeply interested in theology, and absorbed Williamson's The Will, Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason, and many other well-known books of that class, determined to settle the great problems of life. In 1880, she was graduated from the Castine Normal School.
Career
She married L. R. Damon shortly after graduation, was in the same class. Their first year of married life was spent on her husband's farm in Dixmont, Maine. Subsequently, they removed to the Dexter home. Under the pen name of "Percy Larkin", she had, for several years, contributed lyrical pieces to the Portland, MaineTranscript, The Youth's Companion, Morning Star, and other journals. She wrote excellent prose, as many sketches and editorials attested. Her longest poem was "The Wind Flower". She was the author of two or more novels, one of which was entitled, Idlewise. She was associated with her sister, Mary V. Pierce, in the editorship of Quiet Hours, a monthly journal of Literary, Educational and Social Progress, a literary journal printed in Dexter,, and The Tally Ho. Damon was very interested in pedagogy, and she wrote concerning it. She had several years of experience as a successful teacher. Damon was not a member of any religious organization. As she explained it:— "I cannot be one with any denomination in the world, not because I see so many flaws, but, in truth, because I see so many virtues, in them all. I have my creed; I am content." She died in 1939.
