Part 18

The prolific =Catherine Grace Gore= gives in the novels “The Banker’s Wife,” “Cecil, or the Adventures of a Coxcomb,” “Greville,” and “Ormington,” masterful pictures of the life and pursuits of the English upper classes.

=Caroline Elizabeth Norton=, after having given in her novel “The Undying One” a version of the legend of the Wandering Jew, became in her book “A voice from the Factories” a most eloquent priestess of reforms. She condemned especially child labor, the darkest blot on the social conditions of England.

In the middle of the 19th Century =Mary A. Evans= became famous under her nom de plume “=George Eliot=.” Having translated in 1844 David Strauss’ brilliant work “Das Leben Jesu,” and Spinoza’s “Ethics,” she published in 1858 her novel “Adam Bede,” which placed her at once in the front rank of modern authors. Her later novels “The Mill on the Floss,” “Silas Marner,” “Romola” and “Felix Holt” proved so many contributions to her fame.

In recent times the works of =Mary Edgeworth=, =Charlotte R. Lenox=, =Anne M. Fielding Hall=, =Mary Braddon=, =Elizabeth Sheppard=, =Louise de la Ramée= (Ouida), =Matilde Blind=, =Anna Seward= and =Charlotte M. Younge= have won much appreciation.

Of the woman-authors born in Scotland, =Margaret Oliphant= wrote “Chronicles of Carlingford” and the charming novels “Merkland”; “The Quiet Heart”; “Zaidee,” all of which are exquisite delineations of Scottish life and character. Another Scottish woman-author deserving of mention is =Mary Ferrier=, whose novels “Marriage,” “The Inheritance,” and “Destiny” breathe much originality and humor.

Of the Irish novelists =Julia Kavanagh= and =Margaret Hamilton Hungerford= must be mentioned, the former for her volumes “French Women of Letters”; and “English Women of Letters,” as well as for her novels “Adele”; “The Pearl Fountain”; “Sibyl’s Second Love”; and “Daisy Burns.” Marg. Hungerford’s novel “Molly Brown” has been much admired.

=Mary Augusta Ward=, born in Tasmania, became favorably known through her principal novel “Robert Elsmere,” which delineates effectively the modern spiritual unrest and attempts to proclaim an ideal religion.

Another noteworthy author of Tasmania is =Louisa Anne Meredith=.

England has of course also a long roll of able poetesses, among them =Sarah Flower Adams=, who wrote the beautiful hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” =Alison Cockburn=, =Anne Barnard= and =Caroline Oliphant= are the authors of many fine Scotch songs and ballads, among them the famous poems “Flowers of the Forest” and “Auld Robin Gray.”

In recognition of the grace and delicacy of her lyrics =Elizabeth Barrett Browning= has been called “the most distinguished poet of her sex that England ever produced,” but at the same time “the most unreadable.” Her fame rests chiefly on her “Drama of Exile,” the “Casa Guidi Windows,” and “Aurora Leigh.” The latter is a social epic, which contains many noble passages that give evidence of great originality and power.

=Sarah Coleridge= has been much admired for the gracefulness and the beautiful language of her poems “Phantasmion, a Fairy Tale”; “Sylvan Stay,” and “One Face Alone.”

The poems of =Felicia Hemans= have been the result of a fine imagination and temperament, and of a life spent in romantic seclusion. Many of them, as for instance “Homes of England,” “The Treasures of the Deep,” “The Better Land,” and “The Wreck” rank among the best ever produced.

=Adelaide Ann Proctor=, =Catherine Fowler Philips=, =Christina Rosetti=, =Mary Blackford Tighe=, and =Caroline Oliphant= have been the authoresses of many poems, still cherished for their beauty and nobility of thought.

The United Kingdom has also several woman historians, among them =Catharine Macaulay=, whose “History of England,” in six volumes, appeared in 1763.

The love and reverence she was taught from childhood to cherish for the queens of her country induced =Miss Agnes Strickland=, of Roydon Hall, Suffolk, to write her great work “The Lives of the Queens of England.” Its twelve volumes appeared at intervals from 1840 till 1848. In 1850 she began to publish a similar series about the “Lives of the Queens of Scotland,” completing it in eight volumes in 1859. Unresting in her industry, she wrote likewise “The Lives of the Last Four Stuart Princesses,” published in 1872.

=Harriet Martineau= too deserves an honorable place among English women of letters. Her series of tales designed as “Illustrations of Political Economy” and “Illustrations of Taxation” brought her at once into great prominence. Later on she produced an amazing quantity of works, relating to the laws of man’s nature and development, mesmerism, travel, and other subjects.

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In American literature woman’s activity began with =Anne Bradstreet=, the daughter of Governor Bradstreet of Massachusetts. To him she dedicated the first volume of poetry published on the Western hemisphere. Printed in 1642, it had the somewhat verbose title: “Several Poems, compiled with great variety of wit and learning, full of delight; wherein especially is contained a complete discourse and description of the four elements, constitutions, ages of man, seasons of the year, together with an exact epitome of the three first monarchies, viz.: the Assyrian, Persian, Greecian, and Roman Commonwealth, from the beginning to the end of their last king, with divers other pleasant and serious poems. By a Gentlewoman of New England.” Three editions of this collection appeared.

Of several poems, directed to her husband, we give the following lines:

“If ever two were one, then surely we; If ever man were loved by wife, then thee; If ever wife were happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if ye can!”

=Hannah Adams=, born in 1755, was the first American woman who made literature her profession. Interested in religious controversy she compiled a “View of Religions,” in three parts. After that she wrote “Evidences of Christianity,” a “History of the Jews,” and a “History of New England.” As far as pecuniary matters went, she was, however, singularly unsuccessful, probably from her want of knowledge of business, and ignorance in worldly matters. At the time when she was engaged in compiling her books, so rare were woman-writers in America, that she was looked upon as one of the wonders of her age.

In 1790 appeared a novel, “Charlotte Temple,” a story of love, betrayal, and desertion, by =Mrs. Susanna Haswell Rowson=, a book of which more than a hundred editions are known.

With the beginning of the 19th Century the number of American authoresses increased rapidly. =Catharine= and =Susan Sedgwick= wrote their “New England Tales,” which were received with such favor, that Catharine in 1824 published a novel in two volumes, entitled “Redwood,” a work which met with great success, was republished in England, and translated into French and Italian. It was followed by a large number of other novels, which were greatly appreciated for their purity of language and grace of style.

Somewhat later =Lydia Maria Child= developed as one of the first and foremost progressive writers. Having commenced her literary life with “Hobomok, a Story of the Pilgrims,” she later on devoted herself to the cause of woman and the abolition of slavery. She wrote a “History of Woman,” which was followed in 1833 by a strong “Appeal for that Class of Americans Called Africans,” the first anti-slavery work ever printed in book form in America. In 1841 she moved to New York and assisted her husband in editing “The National Anti-Slavery Standard.”

As is very generally known, her contemporary, =Harriet Beecher Stowe=, too, was interested in the question of abolition. In 1850 she wrote for the “National Era,” an anti-slavery paper, a serial entitled “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” When this novel was republished in book form it met with tremendous success. In the United States between 300,000 and 400,000 copies were sold within three years, and the printing press had to run day in and out to meet the demand. In Europe the book was devoured with the same deep interest. There are thirty-five different editions in English, and translations in at least twenty different languages. As the novel was also dramatized in various forms, it became a great factor in the abolishment of slavery.

Of the later stories by Mrs. Stowe “The Minister’s Wooing,” a tale of New England life in the latter part of the 18th Century, has been pronounced to be her best. But her reputation, while it lasts, will rest chiefly upon “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

=Sarah Margaret Fuller= too belongs to those authors who espoused the cause of woman’s rights. In “The Dial,” a little quarterly journal, the organ of the transcendentalists and of the famous community at Brook Farm, she first published “The Great Lawsuit.” It formed the nucleus of a larger volume entitled “Woman in the Nineteenth Century.” Far in advance of the ideas of her times, it is with its noble sentiments and valuable hints a spirited plea for the rights of the female sex.

=Elizabeth Ellet= is favorably known for her valuable work “The Women of the American Revolution,” published in 1848 in three volumes. It was followed in 1850 by the “Domestic History of the American Revolution,” designed to give an inside view into the spirit of that period, and to describe the social and domestic conditions of the colonists and their feelings during the war.

=Ann Sophia Stephens=, and =Emma D. Southworth= were likewise immensely popular fiction writers during the first half of the 19th Century. So was =Maria S. Cummins=, who in “The Lamplighter” achieved a success comparable to that of Mrs. Stowe’s “Uncle Tom.”

The many short stories and novels of =Mary Virginia Terhune=, who wrote under the pseudonym of Marion Harland; the romances of =Harriet Prescott Spofford=, =Miriam Coles Harris=, =Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard=, and =Adeline Whitney=, are now almost forgotten. Also the novels of =Lydia Sigourney= of Norwich, Connecticut, who holds the record of being one of the most prolific female writers in America. She produced not less than fifty-seven volumes, among them “Letters to Mothers”; “Water-Drops,” a contribution to the temperance-cause; “Pleasant Memories in Pleasant Lands”; “Pocahontas”; and “Traits of the Aborigines of America,” a descriptive poem in five cantos.

=Elizabeth Stuart Phelps= enjoyed with her “Sunny Side” and other tales a phenomenal success. Her daughter, =Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward=, was in her time regarded as the greatest American woman novelist, who has most influenced the women of the United States. “The Silent Partner”; “Hedged In”; “Dr. Zay”; “The Story of Avis” as almost all other stories of the Phelps are laid in New England and exquisitely describe its nature, past, and present conditions.

=Jane Goodwin Austin=, =Rose Terry Cooke=, =Annie Trumbull Slosson=, =Clara Louise Burnham=, =Alice Brown= and =Mary E. Wilkins Freeman= belong also to the woman-authors whose works deal with colonial and present-day life in the New England States.

Of the woman-authors, who realized the possibilities of the romantic life and history of the early settlers and pioneers, =Mary Johnston= and =Mary Hartwell Catherwood= were the most successful. To the former we are indebted for the romances “Prisoners of Hope,” and “To Have and to Hold”; to the latter for the novels “The Lady of Fort St. John,” “The White Islander,” “Old Kaskaskia,” “Lazarre” and others.

Under the pen name of Charles Egbert Craddock =Mary Noailles Murfree= published a series of highly interesting short stories “In the Tennessee Mountains.” Displaying an intimate knowledge of the mountaineers of Eastern Tennessee, and full of life, these stories attracted at once wide attention. They were followed later on by a large number of other novels, of which “The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains,” “In the Clouds,” “The Frontiersmen” and “The Storm Centre” have secured to Miss Murfree a place of honor among present-day writers.

=Alice French= under her well-known pen name Octave Thanet sketched in her short stories life in Iowa and Arkansas; =Ruth McEnery Stuart= wrote amusing stories of negro life in Louisiana.

=Gertrude Franklin Atherton= achieved a wide reputation with her charming romances of early Californian life, among which “The Doomswoman” and “The Californians” are the most remarkable. Of her later novels “The Conqueror” and “A Whirl Asunder” need to be mentioned.

=Mary Hallock Foote=, having likewise studied the conditions of the Far West, in her admirable stories “The Led-Horse Claim,” “Cœur d’Alene,” and “The Chosen Valley” carries the reader into the romance of Western mining camps and of the virgin wilderness.

=Helen Hunt Jackson=, whose literary productions, over the signature “H. H.,” began to attract attention about 1870, offered a truly native flower to American literature in her poetic book “Ramona.” Intensely alive and involving the reader in its movement, it yet contains an idyl of singular loveliness. “Ramona,” says Helen J. Cone in an essay about American literature, “stands as the most finished, though not the most striking, example that what American women have done notably in literature they have done nobly.”

The various works of =Constance Fenimore Woolson=, a grand-niece of Fenimore Cooper, also enjoyed general approval. In her best known novels: “East Angels,” “Jupiter Lights,” and “Horace Chase” she attained a high standard of excellence.

=Frances Hodgson Burnett= created in her book “Through One Administration” a pathetic story of the intricate political life in Washington. Furthermore she gave in “Louisiana” and in “The Pretty Sister of José” charming pictures of Southern conditions.

=Mrs. Burton N. Harrison= and =Edith Wharton= delighted their many readers with highly interesting novels and short stories of New York City Life, full of local color. Of the former author’s works “The Anglomaniacs,” “Golden Rod,” and “The Circle of a Century” show her great skill in the dialogue. Of the many novels and short stories of Miss Wharton “The House of Mirth,”, “The Greater Inclination,” “Sanctuary,” and “Crucial Instances” are perhaps the best.

Among the American novelists of our present days =Margaret Deland= is without question one of the most popular. Her novels “John Ward,” “Sidney,” “Tommy Dove,” “Philip and His Wife,” “The Wisdom of Fools,” “Dr. Lavendar’s People,” and “The Awakening of Helen Richie” rank among the best in American fiction.

The literary work of =Anna Katherine Green=, =Kate Douglas Wiggins=, =Molly Elliot Seawell=, =Ellen Glasgow=, =Mary Shipman Andrews=, =Leona Dalrymple=, =Margaret Sherwood=, and many other woman authors, excellent as much as it is, can only be referred to summarily.

To enrol the names of those American women who since the days of Anne Bradstreet have expressed their thoughts and emotions in poetry, would be a task far exceeding the limits of this volume. Confining ourselves to the most noteworthy, we mention first the sisters =Alice= and =Phœbe Cary=. Among their many splendid poems and novels “Hualco, a Romance of the Golden Age of Tezcuco,” is founded upon adventures of a young Mexican chief, as related by several Spanish historians of the time of the conquest. Of Alice Cary exist several hymns, one of which is almost a classic in the purity of its sentiment.

The poetic spirit of =Julia Ward Howe= found expression in “Passion Flowers” (1854) and “Lyrics” (1866). Her most memorable poem is the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which breathes fervent patriotism and gives expression to the deep moral purpose of the Civil War.

The poetry of =Helen Jackson= unquestionably takes rank above that of any American woman. Emerson rated it above that of almost all American men. Her works include simple poetry of domestic life as well as love-poems of extraordinary intensity and imaginative fullness, furthermore, verses showing most intimate sympathy with external nature; and lastly, a few poems of the highest dignity and melody in the nature of odes, such as “A Christmas Symphony” and “A Funeral March.”

The numerous lyrics of =Elizabeth Oakes Smith=, =E. O. Kinney=, =Frances S. Osgood=, =Anne L. Botta=, =Sarah Helen Whitman=, =Maria Lowell=, =Harriet W. Sewall=, =Emily Judson= and many other women poets of the last half century show a development corresponding to that traceable in the field of American fiction.

In recent times a large number of gifted women have contributed to the general chorus new notes of unusual strength and beauty. Many names deserve a place upon the honor roll; among them =Margaret J. Preston=, =Elizabeth Allen=, =Julia Dorr=, =Mary E. Bradley=, =Nora Perry=, =Mary C. Hudson=, =Margaret Sangster=, =Charlotte Bates=, =May Riley Smith=, =Edna Dean Proctor=, =Elizabeth Stuart Phelps=, =Alice Wellington Rollins=, =Edith Thomas=, =Emma Lazarus=, =Kate Osgood=, and =Ella Wheeler Wilcox=.

In other branches of literature, to which comparatively few women have chosen to devote themselves, as for instance in history, several American women have shown remarkable talent and thoroughness.

First among these historians stands =Mrs. Mercy Otis Warren=, the same who with Mrs. Abigail Smith Adams, the wife of President John Adams, shared the belief that the Declaration of Independence should consider not the freedom of man alone, but that of woman also. Having warmly entered the contest between England and America, Mrs. Warren had corresponded with many of the leading men of the time; these often consulted her, and acknowledged the soundness of her judgment on many of the important events before and after the war. The most valuable of her writings appeared in 1805, under the title “The History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution, interspersed with Biographical, Political, and Moral Observations.” The three volumes of this work, dedicated to George Washington, are valuable as a true record of the events and feelings of those great times.

To =Martha Lamb= the citizens of the metropolis on the Hudson River are indebted for a comprehensive “History of New York City.” =Agnes Laut= penned a series of articles about the discovery of the farthest Northwest. =Ellen Mackay Hutchinson= compiled with Edmund Clarence Stedman “A Library of American Literature,” which in 1888 appeared in ten volumes; it shows excellent judgment, knowledge and care. =Ida Tarbell= produced among many other works a “Life of Abraham Lincoln” and an exceedingly interesting “History of the Standard Oil Company.” =Katherine Coman= published the “Industrial History of the United States.”

“A Century of Dishonor” is the title of a sensational book, written by =Helen Hunt Jackson=, and published in 1881. During her extensive travels in the Far West the author became deeply interested in the much maltreated Indians. Disgusted by the shameless robberies and lawless acts committed by many Indian Agents on the reservations, Mrs. Jackson wrote her book, which is one of the strongest indictments ever directed against the Government. Through this volume she succeeded in doing much to ameliorate the unfortunate conditions of the Red Race.

=Mrs. John A. Logan= compiled a valuable volume, entitled “The Part taken by Women in American History.”

Woman’s status in the laws of the forty-eight states belonging to the United States of America has been treated by =Rose Falls Bres= in the valuable book “The Law and the Woman,” published in 1917 at New York.

The great movement for Women Suffrage found of course likewise its historians. Four of the most prominent leaders and best authorities: =Elizabeth Cady Stanton=, =Susan B. Anthony=, =Matilda Joslyn Gage=, and =Ida Husted Harper= combined for the difficult task of collecting, sifting, and putting together the immense mass of material. Their “History of Woman Suffrage,” published in five huge volumes, is not only a noble record, but at the same time a magnificent monument to women’s courage, indefatigability and perseverance.

A considerable number of women have also contributed to the literature about suffrage, social culture, labor questions, and kindred subjects. =Anna G. Spencer= produced the book “Woman’s Share in Social Culture”; =Charlotte P. Gilman= devoted a volume to “Home” and a second volume to “Woman and Economics”; =Alice M. Earle= described “Childlife in Colonial Times”; =Ellen Key= gave a study of “Love and Marriage”; =Mary Eastman= published “Woman’s Work in America”; =Olive Schreiner= wrote “Woman and Labor,” and =Elisabeth Butler= “Woman in the Trades.” To =Jane Addams= the world is indebted for several well written works, among them: “Democracy and Social Ethics”; “The Spirit of Youth”; “An Ancient Evil and a New Conscience,” and “New Ideals of Peace.” She gave a record of her great settlement work in Chicago in her delightful book “Twenty Years at Hull House.”

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For many centuries the Germans have been known as great writers, poets and philosophers. Perhaps no other nation has contributed so much to the world’s literature. Before the unfortunate year of 1914 the annual output of Germany in works of science, art, philosophy, technics and fiction far surpassed that of any other country, even that of France, Great Britain and America combined.

In these contributions German women have a conspicuous share. Their great interest in this line of activity can be traced back to the early days of the Middle Ages, when nuns like =Hroswitha= glorified the deeds of great emperors, or, like the =Abbess of Hohenburg=, undertook the bold enterprise of compiling a cyclopædia of general knowledge.

Germany had also the first periodicals for women, the earliest dating back to 1644, much read and patronized by the members of the gentle sex. Its title “Frauenzimmer-Gesprächspiele” (“Playful discussion for ladies”) indicates that it was devoted exclusively to matters of the “eternal feminine.”

A similar periodical was “Die vernünftigen Tadlerinnen” (“The reasonable fault-finders”), edited by Johann Christoph Gottsched, professor of philosophy and poetry at the University at Leipzig. The most faithful of his assistants and collaborators was his wife, known in German literature as =Louise Adelgunde Gottschedin=. To the “Deutsche Schaubühne,” likewise published by her husband, she contributed several translations of French Dramas and five comedies of her own, which are still of interest as they illustrate the manners of the time, the middle of the 18th Century.

=Meta Moller=, the wife of the famous poet Klopstock, =Friedericke C. Neuber=, and =Rahel Levin=, the wife of the historian Varnhagen von Ense, made similar use of their great literary abilities. The salon of Mrs. Varnhagen in Berlin from 1814 to 1830 was the meeting place for the most celebrated intellects of Germany, among them Humboldt, Fichte, Schleiermacher, von Kleist, and Heinrich Heine.

The great poetess =Annette von Droste-Hülshoff= (1797–1848) wrote a most powerful novel, “Die Judenbuche”, which is based on the belief that murderers are forced by a mysterious power to return to the scene of their crimes.

The prolific but now almost forgotten writers =Karoline Pichler=, =Henriette Paalzow=, =Otilie Wildermut=, Countess =Ida Hahn-Hahn=, =Fanny Lewald= and =Louise Mühlbach= were followed in the second part of the 19th Century by =Eugenie John=, better known under her nom de plume =Marlitt=. Her novels “Das Geheimniss der alten Mamsell” (“Old Mamselle’s Secret”), “Heideprinzesschen” (“The Princess of the Moor”), “Gold Else” (“Gold Elsie”) and others met with tremendous success and have been in translations also enjoyed by many English and American readers.