Jane Fairfield states that, "[t]he poet William North arrived, during our stay in New York, from London. He had not been long in this country before fate threw myself and daughter in the way of his acquaintance." She describes him as "one of the most unhappy and unfortunate of the fraternity of poets." Jane Fairfield recounts North's unrequited love for her daughter Genevieve Genevra Fairfield, his subsequent suicide, and the posthumous publication of his novel The Slave of the Lamp. She includes a review of this novel and two poems by North published in The New York Times.
