It is a story of a girl who grew up completely isolated but found her voice and chose her own life.

The story of Celia Thaxter has been immortalized by Jane Vallier, adjunct associate professor of English, in her book “Poet on Demand — The Life, Letters, and Works of Celia Thaxter,” which sold out nationally in its first two editions.

Vallier attributes the reason for the sales to a “tremendous interest in Victorian-American history,” especially as the turn of the century approaches.

A second printing of the second edition will come out on Sept. 25. Vallier said she plans to go to the Isles of Shoals at the end of the month to celebrate the new printing.

The Isles of Shoals is where Thaxter grew up in an isolated lighthouse about 10 miles off the coast of New Hampshire. The landscape there inspired many of the poems Thaxter wrote, Vallier said.

The story of Thaxter is one which has interested Vallier since her youth.

“My mother taught me Celia Thaxter poems that she had memorized in country schools to keep me from getting car sick,” Vallier said.

Vallier said the first poem she memorized, and her personal favorite, is “Sandpiper.”

She wrote her dissertation on Thaxter and continued researching the woman’s life afterwards to construct her literary biography.

“She was lost to literary history until I wrote this book,” Vallier said.

In the 19th century, Vallier said Thaxter’s name was a household word.

Everyone knew who she was since her poems were published in the Atlantic Monthly and the McGuffy Readers used in schools and memorized by thousands of students, including Vallier’s mother.

Memorization is a form of learning not often used now.

However, Vallier pointed out most people do memorize things such as lyrics to popular songs or lines from movies.

“People hunger for words that help us organize our thoughts, our chaotic emotions,” Vallier said.

Vallier said Thaxter was the “most widely published woman writing poetry in America in the last half of the 19th century.”

In fact, Vallier said, in 1889 Houghton-Mifflin turned down publishing Emily Dickenson’s poetry because they already had a woman poet, Celia Thaxter.

Thaxter wrote many books of nature poetry, a book on gardening and ecological material. She was also a journalist and a historian.

Vallier said Thaxter was “one of the first people to take a stand against the destruction of nature.” She wrote a tract in 1888 which successfully called for the end of killing birds for feathers and bird wings to be used in women’s hats.

Thaxter never had any formal schooling except for six weeks at a finishing school.

When she was 12, her father sold her into marriage to Levi Thaxter, then 28, for $2,500, which he used to build the first New England resort hotel, Vallier said.

At 16, she married Levi Thaxter, having never seen another adult man besides her father.

“He thought he was getting a slave and a housekeeper,” Vallier said.

He was wrong. “Celia was no poor person … She had her own voice and chose her own life,” Vallier said. “It’s quite a story.”

University Book Store currently has four copies of the book in stock, Ted Hawkins, floor supervisor, said.

“They’re the only place in the country that has copies [for sale],” Vallier said. Parks Library also has two copies of Vallier’s book. “Sometimes I check to see if they’re checked out,” Vallier said.

“Poet on Demand” was published by Peter Randall Books in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

The first edition of 3,000 hardback and 3,000 paperback copies came out in 1982.

The second edition, including a new introduction with information Vallier learned after the first edition, came out in 1994 with 3,000 more paperback copies.

“As soon as you write [something], a whole bunch of new information surfaces,” Vallier said, which is the reason for second editions.

Vallier also speaks at Celia Thaxter conferences around the country, including a five-day conference last summer entitled “Texas Discovers Celia Thaxter.”