Edward Payson Roe
March 7, 1838 - July 19, 1888
Edward Payson Roe
March 7, 1838 - July 19, 1888
He was born in Moodna, town of New Windsor and was the youngest child of a family of thirteen children. He received a thorough education. He was one of the first volunteers to offer his services in the civil war. He was made chaplain of his company. He came home on a thirty days furlough and married the beautiful and accomplished daughter of Nathaniel Sands, one of the first families of Orange County. Mrs. Roe left her home of culture and refinement and returned with her husband to the war to nurse the wounded soldiers.
After the close of the war he was stationed at Highland Falls in charge of the First Presbyterian Church there. It was there that he wrote Barriers Burned Away, a story of the Chicago fire. When I asked him how he came to write the story, his answer was that he was reading the paper one morning when the fire first broke out, and in a casual way he made the remark to Mrs. Roe, "I think I would be able to write a story of the fire with your assistance." Like all noble women she encouraged him in the work. He started at once for the burning city together material for the book, returning after a few weeks, he started on the work of his life, destined as he was to become the greatest author of his day. Barriers Burned Away, first edition, was 50,000. The public is too familiar with his work to go into further detail.
He engaged in the nursery business in Highland Falls and not having land enough at that place he purchased a beautiful home in Cornwall that he loved so well and where he lived and died. At this place he built up the largest nursery trade in the country, shipping millions of plants annually throughout the United States and Canada, and as far as the old world. He was a born horticulturist. From boyhood up he loved the beautiful in nature. Every flower and shrub around his beautiful home was planted by his own hands.
His death was very sudden but he was always prepared to meet his Heavenly Father, who seen fit to endow him with all the gifts that will be found in noble manhood. When we lost him we lost a friend indeed. Ministers and horticulturists came from far and near to pay tribute to one who could find time to rest only when death claimed him. Time will not permit me to go any further, but I trust some future day I will be able to write a biographical sketch of his life.
Barriers Burned Away was first published serially in a magazine, the New York Evangelist. In 1872, when it came out in book form, it shortly became the most popular book of the year. When his next two novels achieved similar success, Roe decided to leave the ministry and give full time to writing. He believed he could reach more people with the message of Christianity through his writing than through preaching. He eventually would write about a dozen more novels, as well as a number of popular short stories. He also wrote a non-fiction book, Success with Small Fruits, primarily about the cultiva tion of strawberries.
Quite a few (if not all) of E. P. Roe's books are available in free or very low cost Kindle editions from Amazon, and also as printed editions.
Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry has very nice e-Books of at least twelve of E. P. Roe's novels. You can download them free as PDF, EPUB (for Apple and other devices), MOBI+AZW3 (for Kindle).
Without a Home and A Knight of the 19th Century.Roe wrote at least two non-fiction books, based on his experience growing strawberries and other foods on his own farm.
Lyman Abbott edited Birthday Mottoes, a collection of quotations from the writings of E. P. Roe, arranged in calendar order, with quotations for each day of the year. It is available at Google Books, to read, search, or download. It is a large book, over 400 pages. The quotations are on the even pages, and the odd pages have dates with large blanks to fill in names of people with that birthday.
-- Bob Sander-Cederlof --
November 5, 1999 and April 12, 2020
Danny Carlton has created a wonderful web site which is an online library of many old works of literature. Among hundreds of books by other authors, you can find the full text of the following books by E. P. Roe:
Also, most of E. P. Roe's books are now available for reading or download at ManyBooks.net.
From the dust jacket:"A simple, strong story of American life.
"The stern, silent hero is a farmer, a man with honest, sincere views of life, and of sufficient education to make him an alien among the other farmers. Bereft of his wife, to whom he had been sincerely attached, his home is cared for by a succession of domestics of varying degrees of inefficiency.
"At last, from a most unpromising source, comes a young woman applicant that the farmer feels is the housekeeper he needs. He decides to marry her before she enters his service to protect them both from the coarse suspicions of the villagers.
"Thus enters into the grim history of this man's life a romance as bright and delicate as a golden thread, developing on both sides a love that could surmount all difficulties and survive the censure of friends as well as the bitterness of enemies."
From a review by Julian Hawthorne (son of Nathaniel Hawthorne): "The more I think over the book the better I like it in all its parts. Upon the whole I think that Mr. Roe has written the best American novel that has been published this year." -- New York World
"The characters are delineated with truthfulness and consistency. In their conception the author shows equal originality and boldness. Even Old Bill Cronk, the rough, hard-swearing, hard-drinking, big-fisted, big-hearted Western drover, could not be spared from the scene." -- New York Tribune.
"We congratulate Mr. Roe upon his story of the day." -- New York Observer.
"We accord a hearty commendation to this work. The narrative is vigorous, often intense, but rarely if ever melodramatic. Its language is usually no less chaste than forcible and impressive. It betrays a power of invention and description which is not met with every day in the best of writers of popular fiction." -- Dr. Ripley, in the New York Tribune
[ From a catalog included at the back of an 1878 edition of "A Face Illumined" and an 1888 edition of "Taken Alive" ]
"We consider that parents are indebted to the author for the most practical story of the day." -- Philadelphia Age.
"His works have an honest, healthy tone, and a purpose. His narrative is full of interest -- in the present case unusually so. We must not forget in particular to allude to his always charming bits of country life; his gardening at once poetic and profitable." -- New York Evening Express
"The narrative is fascinating." -- Chicago Advance.
"An exceedingly well-written story." -- Churchman.
[ From a catalog included at the back of an 1878 edition of "A Face Illumined" and an 1888 edition of "Taken Alive" ]
"The character of the selfish, morbid, cynical hero, and his gradual transformation under the influence of the sweet and high-spirited heroine, are portrayed with a masculine firmness, which is near akin to power, and some of the conversations are animated and admirable." -- Atlantic Monthly
"The most able story that we have had from the pen of Mr. Roe. It is also the best of the so-called religious novels published of late." -- The Christian Union.
"There are many stirring and dramatic scenes in the story, while its quieter phases are not wanting in grace and sweetness." -- Boston Traveler.
"Mr. Roe has laid out his greatest power in depicting the character of the heroine, who is a model of saintly purpose and ardent piety without losing the peculiar charms of female loveliness. He is strong in his delineation of character. All his personages have a clear, sharp-cut individuality, and make a fresh and deep impression on the reader." -- New York Tribune.
[ From a catalog included at the back of an 1878 edition of "A Face Illumined" and an 1888 edition of "Taken Alive" ]
"It is surprising to find how genuinely interesting his stories always are. There is nothing of the vulgarly sensational about them." Eclectic Magazine.
"Mr. Roe's books are religious novels in perhaps the best sense of the term." -- Zion's Herald, Boston.
"A simple, pure story, such as Mr. Roe has always written, is one of the most potent vehicles of moral and religious training that can be employed." -- Buffalo Daily Courier.
"Mr. Roe's works have had a fine, noble purpose, each and all. The present story is an excellent one -- of high tone and deep religious strength." -- Boston Evening Traveler.
"It is a thoroughly good story because pervaded by an influence thoroughly pure." -- American Rural Home.
"The hero is simple, strong, and manly; much such a man as Mr. Lincoln must have been had he turned his attention to theology instead of politics." -- New York World.
"A bright, vivacious story, full of wit and even frolic." -- Portland Transcript.
"He vindicates his right to use the talent which God has given him for the instruction and interest of the thousands who read his works." -- New York Evangelist.
[ From a catalog included at the back of an 1878 edition of "A Face Illumined" and an 1888 edition of "Taken Alive" ]
"His heroine absorbs the main interest of the plot. She is a pure child of Nature, with a limited experience of life, and none of society; but her artless characters combines a treasure of noble principle, womanly devotion, and high-souled conduct, which is rarely found among the fruits of the choicest culture. Mr. Roe has no small sense of humor, and in the course of the story makes excellent use of Irish oddities and the Irish dialect to enliven the scene." -- New York Tribune.
"The stirring scenes of the Revolution afford ample material for dramatic incidents, which are skillfully employed. Vera is by far the most original of Mr. Roe's conceptions, and is drawn with very decided artistic skill." -- Harper's Magazine.
The half-insane outlaw, the gentle and devoted wife, the one noble and beautiful daughter, and old Gula the African, together form a remarkable group." -- New York Observer.
"For while he tells a story admirably well, and paints character with the skill of a master, he carefully eschews sensationalism." -- Albany Evening Journal.
"The plot is sufficiently complex, the story is told smoothly, and its interest is well sustained throughout. His views are broadly catholic, and his notions of morality and right living are thoroughly sound and wholesome." -- Evening Post.
"In its plot it is original; in its diction it is eminently smooth and graceful; and in its moral it is above all praise." -- Boston Evening Telegraph.
"The best of the author's stories." -- Christian Union.
"Mr. Roe is one of the most successful of American story writers, and his last effort is an advance on his earlier books. A large amount of military history is woven into the narrative, giving the work a certain solid value. Larry, Saville's servant, makes fun for the million, his lusty wife, Molly, aiding him in no small degree. The book is well written and deeply interesting." -- Boston Literary World.
"The avidity and delight with which Mr. Roe's books are read is a most hopeful sign, and shows that people will read what is good for them if only they can get it." -- Advance, Chicago.
"His heroine is a pure child of nature, with a limited experience of life, and none of society; but her artless character combines a pleasure of noble principle, womanly devotion, and high-souled conduct, which is rarely found among the fruits of the choicest culture." -- New York Tribune
[ From a catalog included at the back of an 1878 edition of "A Face Illumined" and an 1888 edition of "Taken Alive" ]
"It is a book which those who begin will be pretty sure to finish, deriving from it a new impulse to the truest knighthood." -- Harper's Magazine.
"It is eminently thoughtful, admirably constructed, and thoroughly interesting from cover to cover." -- Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post.
"The whole tone of the work is manly and healthful. It is thoroughly noble in all its teachings and tendencies." -- Utica Herald.
"The most charming book yet produced by Mr. Roe, and one of the very best of its class ever written." -- Christian Union.
"Enhances the author's already well-established reputation. Mr. Roe is sensational, but to a degree that is not unhealthy, and his books will be less ephemeral than the general run of religious novels." -- Springfield Republican.
"This book contains the elements of perfect work, clearness and brilliancy of style, conciseness and beauty of expression, a good plot, an entertaining story, and a most excellent moral." -- Christian Intelligencer.
"The characters are drawn from real life." -- Christian Union.
"Mr. Roe's style is never commonplace." -- Boston Courier.
"He has greatly improved the art of telling a story." -- New York Evening Post.
"His stories are uniformly of intense interest." -- Boston Home Journal.
[ From a catalog included at the back of an 1878 edition of "A Face Illumined" and an 1888 edition of "Taken Alive" ]
[ From a catalog included at the back of an 1878 edition of "A Face Illumined" and an 1888 edition of "Taken Alive" ]
[ From a catalog included at the back of an 1878 edition of "A Face Illumined" and an 1888 edition of "Taken Alive" ]
[ From a catalog included at the back of an 1878 edition of "A Face Illumined" and an 1888 edition of "Taken Alive" ]
[ From a catalog included at the back of an 1878 edition of "A Face Illumined" and an 1888 edition of "Taken Alive" ]
"The chief elements of Mr. Roe's popularity as a novelist are a very exact understanding of the habits of thought of the great majority, sympathy with the ordinary passions and sentiments, respect for whatever is just and decorous, and, lastly, the art of telling a simple story in a simple and effective manner." -- New York Tribune
[ From a catalog included at the back of an 1878 edition of "A Face Illumined" and an 1888 edition of "Taken Alive" ]
[ From a catalog included at the back of an 1878 edition of "A Face Illumined" and an 1888 edition of "Taken Alive" ]
[ From a catalog included at the back of an 1878 edition of "A Face Illumined" and an 1888 edition of "Taken Alive" ]