James Lindsay Gordon, author of "Ballads of the Sunlit Years," died at his residence, No 15 West 17th Street, New York City, while this volume was going through the press. He was born in Virginia January 9, 1860, and was educated at William and Mary College and the University of Virginia. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1881. He practised his profession in Charlottesville, Va., from that date to 1893, serving in the meantime for three years in Virginia state Senate, and declining a renomination. In 1893 he removed to New York City where he resided and practised law up to the date of his death. He served as Assistant District Attorney of the City of New York under District Attorneys Gardiner and Philbin, and at the time of his death was Assistant Corporation Counsel of New York City.

He was distinguished for his eloquence as a political and forensic speaker; and delivered addresses, among many others before the Alumni Societies of the University of Virginia and William and Mary College, before the Southern Societies of Atlanta, Georgia, and the graduating classes of Randolph Macon College and the University of Vermont.

"Ballads of the Sunlit Years" include a number of his fugitive poems, selected and arranged by himself, many of which have never before been published.