Annie Campbell Huestis

by George Dance

Annie Campbell Huestis (1876-1960) was a Canadian poet.

Life
Huestis was born in Halifax Nova Scotia, the youngest of six children, to Victoir Ayrton (Johnson) and Martin Bent Huestis. She began to write at an early age. Before she had reached her teens, Charles G.D. Roberts submitted her first poem to the New York Independent (edited by his cousin, Bliss Carman), which bought it.

She frequently contributed to Canadian and American magazines after that. Her poem "On the Stair" was published in Harper's Weekly in 1915, and she published a sort story, "Flannigan," in [[Harper's Magazine in September 1916.

Writing
E.W. Thompson: "That Annie Campbell Huestis is a true poet must be evident to any discerning reader of her contributions to this book, though they are but a few blossoms plucked from her already fertile muse.... From childhood she has written verses of high lyrical quality, many of which have been welcomed to the pages of such publications as 'Harper's Magazine' and the 'New York Independent'.... Her poems evince a lovely meditativeness, a spirit sensitive to beauty and to sorrow, consolation, spiritual gladness. They have spontaneity, originality, distinction: novelty in theme and turn: clearly springing from a peculiar inspiration.... Invariably, Miss Huestis employs simple, natural diction, never straining for preciosity, and never failing to express perfectly her meaning and designed incantation. Often she pierces the sense of 'our mortal strife with the immortal woe of life,' yet always she lifts the listening soul, as does the song sparrow's plaintive refrain, to delight not unaware of imminent tears."