“ It was impossible that so daring a venture should escape censure, but Miss Rives kept her balance through blame and praise alike, writing steadily and studying, filled with a purpose to perfect herself in the art she considers the greatest, determined to retain her individuality while constantly striving to throw aside the faults of youth and literary inexperience. ”

“ Her writings were never criticised, and rarely read, and to that habit of freedom is perhaps due the strong individuality of style which has carried her so successfully through what has been, so far. a most daring as well as a most brilliant literary career. Her love of art only seconded that of literature, and her life has been spent in pursuit of both. In 1886 Miss Rives published anonymously, in the "Atlantic Monthly," "A Brother to Dragons," a story of the sixteenth century, so powerful that it attracted widespread attention both in this country and in England. ”

“ She is impressed by the feeling that what she has done is but a preparation, "musics," as she is fond of expressing it, for the message she feels she has to deliver, and every power of an intense and earnest nature is bent on putting to the best uses the talents which she looks upon with a deep sense of responsibility. ”