Richard Watson Gilder
1844–1909
Editor of The Century Magazine, Poet, and Reform Advocate
For nearly three decades, editor-in-chief of The Century Monthly Magazine — one of the most prestigious and influential positions in American publishing.
For nearly three decades Richard Watson Gilder, as editor-in-chief of The Century Monthly Magazine, held one of the most prestigious and influential positions in American publishing. He and his wife, artist Helena de Kay, also exerted considerable influence in New York's cultural circles and were known for their Friday-evening gatherings for artists, writers, and musicians at their Manhattan residence. Cecilia Beaux, who trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and at the Académies Julian and Colorossi in Paris, was a close friend of the Gilders; to contemporary viewers, her elegant and sympathetic rendering of the editor conveyed the close rapport between sitter and artist.
Richard Watson Gilder was the head of Citizens League organizing, the founder and first president of the Nursery School League, as well as president of the New York Society for the Blind. He was a man of letters and a lover of his type, working practically to improve social and economic conditions, and taking a keen and efficient interest in the social life of his city.
His correspondence (1861–1909) includes twenty-one books of letters, a small number of outgoing letters by Gilder himself, and a large amount of inbound correspondence related to his editorial work for Scribner's Monthly and The Century, and to his social and other professional activities. Gilder's true contributions to American letters came through the editing of a superior literary journal. He was an associate editor of Scribner's Monthly Magazine (later The Century) from its founding in 1870 until 1881, when, upon J. G. Holland's death, he became managing editor. After working for the Newark, N.J., daily newspaper for three years (1865–1868), he founded, with Newton Crane, The Newark Morning Register.
Gilder's education began in his father's girls' school in Bordentown, N.J., where he was the only boy enrolled. He later met and married Helena de Kay, both eminent authors, artists, and muses in their own right. Their first child, Helena Marion de Kay Gilder, would live only six months. Their third child, Richard Watson de Kay Gilder, would live only a few days. Their son Rodman de Kay Gilder (1877–1953) became a writer and married Louise Comfort Tiffany.
Louis Comfort Tiffany, William Merritt Chase, John LaFarge, Albert Pinkham Ryder, and Alexander Wilson Drake helped along with Saint-Gaudens and others to establish the Society of American Artists — now merged into the National Academy — and the Art Students League in New York. Their circle of friends that would gather at their studio salon became some of the most famous giants in literature, art, music, and politics.
The famous Saint-Gaudens bronze plaque of the family is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Paintings of Helen and Richard sit in the Smithsonian and National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., and Richard's and Helena's diaries and corresponding letters are held in a collection at the Lilly Library. Helena was the subject of love poems by Richard Watson Gilder, and of love letters and paintings by Winslow Homer, John LaFarge, Mary Hallock Foote, and others. Mr. and Mrs. Gilder collaborated on a number of books, with Helena serving as illustrator for several of his works, including Two Worlds and Other Poems (1891).