MOORE (1847-1920) Julia A. Moore, known as “The Sweet Singer of Michigan,” was praised by none other than Mark Twain, who said that her first book of poetry gave him joy for twenty years. That book, The Sweet Singer of Michigan Salutes the Public (the title later changed to the more euphonious A Sentimental Song Book) was a success and went through three reprints—principally because Twain and others thought it so unintentionally hilarious that they recommended it to friends. Moore took their “praise” quite literally and so encouraged turned out A Few Choice Words for the Public. Moore’s recurrent poetic theme was death—particularly violent death through some form of disaster, such as a railway disaster of Ashtabula and a yellow fever epidemic, but also via more prosaic means such as lightning, overturned sleighs, and drowning. Moore was particularly partial to infant mortality, particularly with dead curly blond-haired blue-eyed infants as subjects. One contemporary critic wrote that Moore was “worse than a Gatling gun,”
