Willis, Nathaniel Parker, the well-known American poet and man of letters, was born at Portland, Me., January 20, 1807; graduated at Yale in 1827; followed a literary life with great success, publishing many volumes, one of poems; died at his beautiful home, "Idlewild," near Newburg-on-the-Hudson, January 29, 1867. He published a volume of Sacred Poems in 1843. His sister, Mrs. Parton, was a writer widely known under the nom de plume of "Fanny Fern."