Happy Birthday, Agnes Repplier
Born April 1, 1855, Philadelphia, PA | Died December 15, 1950, Philadelphia, PA
Today, the Best American Essays newsletter celebrates essayist Agnes Repplier on the 170th anniversary of her birth. A frequent contributor to Catholic World and The Atlantic Monthly, Repplier’s honors included honorary degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Notre Dame, Yale University, and Columbia University.
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“For every sentence that may be penned or spoken the right words exist. They lie concealed in the inexhaustible wealth of a vocabulary enriched by centuries of noble thought and delicate manipulation.”
“Musicians know the value of chords; painters know the value of colors; writers are often so blind to the value of words that they are content with a bare expression of their thoughts, disdaining the ‘labor of the file,’ and confident that the phrase first seized is for them the phrase of inspiration.”

First published essay:
“In Arcady,” Catholic World, 1881.
Select nonfiction bibliography:
American Austen: The Forgotten Writings of Agnes Repplier, edited by John Lukacs (Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2009).
See also:
Visit the Agnes Repplier papers at University of Pennsylvania
Read books by Agnes Repplier available on Project Gutenberg
Read essays available as PDFs at Quotidiana’s Agnes Repplier page