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Frederic Mellen "Son of the distinguished jurist, Chief Justice Prentiss Mellen, and younger brother of Grenville Mellen; was born in Biddeford, Maine, Dec. 3, 1804. He graduated at Bowdoin College in the same class with Henry W. Longfellow. He studied law, and opened an office in Portland, but his tastes inclining to poetry and art, he never practiced to any extent. He not only possessed a very delightful and delicate poetic talent, but bade fair to arrive at distinction in the art of painting, having a peculiar aptitude for the finest combinations of forms and colors. Some of his landscapes are still in the possession of families in Portland. He removed to Boston, and died there Aug. 13, 1834. Mr. Mellen had a happy, genial disposition, devoted to the elegant work of his choice, but careless of fame." [George Bancroft Griffith (ed.), The Poets of Maine 107 (Portland, Maine: Elwell, Pickard & Co., 1888)] |
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