Brougham, the actor and dramatist, thus expressed his
interest in a published letter to Willis:

The only person that I am disposed to think, write or talk
about at present is your dazzling, bewitching correspondent,
"Grace Greenwood." Who is she? that I may swear by her! Where
is she? that I may fling myself at her feet! There is a
splendour and dash about her pen that carry my fastidious
soul captive by a single charge. I shall advertise for her
throughout the whole Western country in the terms in which they
inquire for Almeyda in Dryden's _Don Sebastian_: "Have you
seen aught of a woman who lacks two of the four elements, who has
nothing in her nature but air and fire?"

And here is one of the poetical tributes:

If to the old Hellenes
Thee of yore the gods had given
Another Muse, another Grace
Had crowned the Olympian heaven.

Whittier at that time spoke most cordially of her "earnest
individuality, her warm, honest, happy, hopeful, human heart; her
strong loves and deep hates."

E.P. Whipple, the Boston critic and essayist, when reviewing her
poems, spoke of their "exceeding readableness"; and George Ripley,
then of the New York _Tribune_, said:

One charm of her writings is the frankness with which she takes
the reader into her personal confidence. She is never formal,
never a martyr to artificial restraint, never wrapped in a
mantle of reserve; but, with an almost childlike simplicity,
presents a transparent revelation of her inmost thoughts and
feelings, with perfect freedom from affectation.

She might have distinguished herself on the stage in either tragedy or
comedy, but was dissuaded from that career by family friends. I
remember seeing her at several receptions, reciting the rough Pike
County dialect verse of Bret Harte and John Hay in costume. Standing
behind a draped table, with a big slouch hat on, and a red flannel
shirt, loose at the neck, her disguise was most effective, while her
deep tones held us all. Her memory was phenomenal, and she could
repeat today stories of good things learned years ago.

Her recitation was wonderful; so natural, so full of soul and power. I
have heard many women read, some most execrably, who fancied they were
famous elocutionists; some were so tolerable that I could sit and
endure it; others remarkably good, but I was never before so mov