DEERING, Nathaniel, author, born 25 June 1791 ; died near Portland, Maine. in 1881. His grandfather was Nathaniel Deering, to whose energy and enterprise Portland owes so much of its early prosperity. Mr. Deering studied at Phillips Exeter academy, and was graduated at Harvard in 1810. He entered the counting house of Asa Clapp, in Porthind, but soon relinquished business pursuits for the law, and he was admitted to the bar in 1815, and practiced in Canaan, and afterward in Milburn (now Skowhegan), Maine It was while Mr. Deering was living at Canaan that Lydia Maria Child wrote a well known epigram upon his name: "Whoever weds the young lawyer at C. Will surely have prospects most cheering, For what must his person and intellect be, When even his name is N. Deering ?" Ire returned to Portland in 1836, devoted himself to literary pursuits, and was for some time editor of a political paper, the " Independent Statesman." While still at Milburn he published "Carabasset," a tragedy founded upon the story of the massacre of Father Rasle and the Norridgewoek Indians by the British in 1720. "The Clairvoyants," a comedy, which has been several times produced upon the stage in Boston and Portland, followed this work. His miscellaneous writings include humorous tales of " down east " life. His most finished play is " Bozzaris," a tragedy (1851).