Ethel Lynn Beers
Dates: January 12, 1827 - October 11, 1879
Born Ethelinda Eliot*, she published poetry as Ethel Lynn, and, after her 1846 marriage, as Ethel Lynn Beers. She lived in New York and New Jersey.
Harper's Magazine in 1861 published a poem she'd titled "The Picket Guard." Known almost immediately more by its opening line, "All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight," the poem was adapted to music and sung by soldiers on both sides in the Civil War. It was misattributed, sometimes to a dead soldier in whose pocket a scrap of paper had been found, sometimes to Southern writers.
Her collected poems were published on October 10, 1879, as All Quiet Along the Potomac and Other Poems. She'd reluctantly published the volume, believing that once that happened, she would die. She died the day following publication.
Note on names: while she preferred "Ethel Lynn Beers" she may be found under Ethelinda Eliot Beers; I've found her poetry published in the 19th century as "Ethelin Eliot Beers" and "Mrs. Ethel Lyon Beers" as well.
On this site
Bibliography
- Victorian Parlour Poetry : An Annotated Anthology. Michael Turner, editor. 1992.
Includes "The Picket" and poems by other writers of the time.
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Text © 1999-2008 Jone Johnson Lewis.
