The Berkshires summer home of Helena de Kay and Richard Watson Gilder is being turned into a museum. Gilder's siblings were William Henry Gilder, an explorer; Jeannette Leonard Gilder, a journalist; and Joseph Benson Gilder, an editor. His grandson George Gilder is a renowned author and was a speechwriter for Richard Nixon. Frank Weitenkampf recounts the following anecdote of Gilder and Alexander Wilson Drake: Drake and some friends, late one Christmas Eve (or was it Thanksgiving?), wandering down the Bowery, came across a turkey raffle. They took chances, and won the bird, a large, live specimen. What to do with it? One of the party had a happy idea. Off they marched to Gilder's house, rang up the butler, and persuaded him to let them tie the bird to a large chair in the front room. Drake continued the story to the effect that Gilder early next morning was aroused by a terrific racket, rushed downstairs, and found the children hilariously dancing around the turkey, whose excited gobbling added to the din. Death Gilder died November 19, 1909. Following his death, he was remembered by Theodore Roosevelt as one of the truest, stanchest, and most delightful of friends, and one of the best of citizens. He combined to a singular degree sweetness and courage, idealism and wholesome common sense. It may be truthfully said that he was an ideal citizen for such democracy as ours. He was a man of letters; he was a lover of his kind who worked in a practical fashion for the betterment of social and economic conditions, and he took keen and effective interest in our public life. No worthier American citizen has lived during our time. Selected works The New Day (1875) Lyrics and Other Poems (1885) The Celestial Passion (1887) Two Worlds and Other Poems (1891) Five Books of Song (1894) In Palestine, and Other Poems (1898) Poems and Inscriptions (1901) In the Heights (1905) A Book of Music (1906) Grover Cleveland: A Record of Friendship Gilder's daughter, Rosamond Gilder, edited Letters of Richard Watson Gilder, published by Houghton Mifflin Company in 1916. See also Robert Underwood Johnson References Notes Bibliography External links 1844 births 1909 deaths Union Army soldiers American male poets Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters American newspaper founders People from Bordentown, New Jersey People from Queens, New York People of Pennsylvania in the American Civil War