Skip to main content

Boston Writer Mary Louise 'Minnie' Gilmore (1862-1932) Popular Poet and Novelist


Born in Boston on June 29, 1862, Mary Louise Gilmore was the daughter of famous bandleader Patrick S. Gilmore of Galway and his wife Ellen J. O’Neill of Lowell.  Minnie, as she was call throughout her life,  and her mother traveled extensively when the Gilmore Band was touring the United States and Europe between 1870 and 1892, and as a result she was inspired by the world at an early age. 

In 1881, when still a teenager, she began publishing her poetry in The Boston Pilot, and was praised by editor John Boyle O'Reilly and others for her writing.  She also appeared in the Boston Evening Transcript, the Catholic World and other publications.

Gilmore wrote two books of fiction and two volumes of poetry that were well-reviewed and popular in their time.  The books included: Pipes from Prairie Land and Other Places (1886), A Son of Esau (1892), The Woman Who Stood Between (1892), and Songs from the Wings (1897). 

Speaking about her first book,  Pipes from Prairie Land and Other Places,  she is quoted as saying in the Biographical Sketches of the Poets of Ireland, "A Boston girl by birth, a Gothamite by adoption, a cosmopolitan by virtue of our Bohemian, strolling life, it may seem strange that my first work should. be distinctly western....The country, which I have loved ' from my youth up,' the primitive social atmosphere here, and above all the life on horseback which I led, took my heart by storm, and I have been restive under civilization since."

The Pilot reprinted a poetry review in the New York-based Critic Magazine that harshly complained about her book, Prairie Land, before noting, "Here is a young poet, with the right element of daring in her, with the distinct germs, also, of popularity, who, with utter watchfulness, keen self-criticism, and the cultivation of the priceless knowing-of-when-to-stop facility, can be a beast to the future of literature. Godspeed to all such beginners. It is in the interest of civilization to kill off the others." 

An October 1892 review of her novel, A Son of Esau, Book Chat Magazine called it "a strong novel, a story true to life and masculine in its bold treatment of the master passions. It is hard to believe that this story is the work of a young woman at the threshold of life without experience of its actualities."

Image Courtesy of New York Public Library

Minnie was with her mother Ellen were in St. Louis when her father died suddenly in September 1892, throwing the family and also Gilmore's Band into turmoil. The two women struggled financially, and were forced to sell Gilmore's prized library of 18,000 items for a few hundred dollars in order to pay the bills.  Wrote the Pilot in 1902, " Mrs. Gilmore and her daughter, Mary Gilmore; having lost their New York estate, are  living in the Roxbury district, Boston, slenderly maintained by the literary work of the latter."  Ellen died in 1917. 

In 1907, Minnie married John P. Carter, whose parents were from Ireland, and they lived on the Upper East Side in Manhattan until her death on April 8, 1932.  Minnie is buried in the Gilmore family plot in Woodside, Queens, alongside her parents and her husband, who died in 1948.

The John J.Burns Library at Boston College has materials relating Minnie Gilmore as part of the Michael Cummings Collection of P.S.Gilmore.

Read about other Irish women of Boston and Massachusetts at irishboston.blogspot.com/

Research + Text, Michael Quinlin





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Boston Celtics : The Story Behind Their Irish Green Theme

Bill Russell played for the Boston Celtics from 1956 to 1959 (This story was updated in March 2024) Many people wonder why the  Boston Celtics  wear shamrocks on their green uniforms and have a giant leprechaun smoking a cigar as their team logo. And why is the team mascot a guy named Lucky who looks like he stepped out of a box of Lucky Charms? According to the Boston Celtic’s official web site, the name came about in 1946 when owner Walter Brown started the team. He and his public relations guy, Howie McHugh, were throwing out potential nicknames, including the Whirlwinds, Unicorns and Olympics. It was Brown who had the epiphany, saying, “Wait, I’ve got it – the Celtics. The name has a great basketball tradition from the old Original Celtics in New York (1920s). And Boston is full of Irishman. We’ll put them in green uniforms and call them the Boston Celtics.” Red Auerbach , the now legendary coach of the early Celtics, then commissioned his brother Zang, a graphic d...
Post a Comment
Read more

Boston Mayors of Irish Descent, 1885-2021

(Originally published in 2013, this post was updated in 2021) Here are the Mayors of Boston Claiming Irish Heritage:  Hugh O’Brien 1885–88 Patrick Collins 1902–05 John F. Fitzgerald 1906–07, 1910–13 James M. Curley 1914–17, 1922–25, 1930–33, 1946–49 Frederick W. Mansfield 1934–37 Maurice Tobin 1938–41, 1941-44 John Kerrigan 1945 John B. Hynes 1950–59 John Collins 1960–68 Kevin H. White 1968–83 Raymond L. Flynn 1984–93 Martin J. Walsh   2014- 2021 The lineage of Boston mayors with Irish ancestry dates back to 1885, when Irish immigrant Hugh O'Brien of County Cork assumed office and became the first Irish-born mayor elected in Boston, serving four one-year terms (1885-88).   O'Brien was followed by Irish-born Patrick Collins (1902-05), also of County Cork, who died in office in 1905. He was replaced by John F. Fitzgerald, who became the first American-born mayor of Irish descent, serving two terms.  A noteworthy...
Post a Comment
Read more

Visit these Public Memorials to John Boyle O'Reilly throughout Massachusetts

  Born 180 years ago on June 28, 1844, John Boyle O’Reilly helped shape the history or Ireland and America in the late 19th century in powerful ways. Today, O'Reilly’s stature as a seminal figure in Irish and Irish-American history is particularly evident in his beloved birthplace of Dowth, County Meath; in Freemantle, Australia where he was imprisoned; and indeed, throughout the Irish Diaspora.  O'REILLY LANDMARKS IN MASSACHUSETTS O’Reilly remains popular in Boston, New Bedford, Hull and Springfield where there is a selection of memorials and plaques, parks and city squares, library collections and Irish organizations honoring O’Reilly’s memory. In Boston, the John Boyle O’Reilly Memorial at the corner of Boylston Street and The Fens, not far from Fenway Park, was unveiled in 1896 by famed Concord sculptor Daniel French. The Memorial is part of Boston’s Irish Heritage Trail. In Charlestown, O’Reilly lived at 34 Winthrop Street, where there is a plaque in his honor. In 1988 t...
Post a Comment
Read more