American author, playwright, and actress, Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie (1819–1870), challenged the mores of her era by acting on the stage at a time when the theater was railed against by the clergy, when female actresses were considered lewd, and when women, especially upper-class women such as herself, were supposed to remain at home caring for husband and children.

Early Life

Anna Cora Mowatt’s early life set the stage for her later accomplishments. Born tenth in a family of fourteen children, Mowatt spent her first six years in France. Her aristocratic, wealthy parents had links to the first families in New York and cherished writing and acting. As such, she was encouraged from a young age to write poetry and to act in elaborate family dramatic productions. Educated at private schools, she eloped at fifteen and, encouraged by her lawyer husband, continued to educate herself and to write at their rural country home in Flatbush, New York.

Early Works

In 1836, at the age of sixteen, Mowatt published her first work, Pelayo, or The Cavern of Covadongaunder, a Romance, written in verse under the pen name “Isabel.” When this girlish work was “torn apart “readily extinguished” by the critics, she showed amazing boldness by writing another satire, Reviewers Reviewed, also in verse, attacking the critics by name

She displayed this same boldness upon the loss of most of her husband’s property including her beloved country house through bad investments, by conceiving the idea of doing public readings. She is credited as being the first lady elocutionist because at the time only men pursued this occupation. Her readings were very popular and drew large audiences, despite being considered scandalous by many of her aristocratic peers. After several months, she lost her voice due to illness, and after a healing trip to Europe, returned to publishing numerous articles and stories in periodicals as well as in story collections.

Acting Career

A novel about marriage, Evelyn, written in 1845, was followed by several successful plays. Performing in her play Armand or the Peer and the Peasant, led to a successful acting career in which she performed in plays such as Lady of Lyons, the works of Shakespeare, and other popular plays of the time. Her play, Fashion, A Comedy, a satire on New York high society was a major hit, if not among her peers, then with the rest of the theater-going public.

Her performance on stage was highly celebrated at the time. The Herald called her “a consummate artist — one of the greatest this country has ever produced.” Edgar Allen Poe reviewed her acting as follows:

“Her figure is slight, even fragile. Her face is a remarkably fine one, and of that precise character best adapted to the stage . . . The mouth is large, with brilliant and even teeth and flexible lips, capable of the most instantaneous and effective variations of expression. A more radiantly beautiful smile it is quite impossible to conceive.” (“The Literati of New York City. No. II, in Godey’s Lady’s Book, 1846, v. 32, p. 267)

This success led to her touring the US and Europe for eight years as an acclaimed actress. She describes the trials and tribulations of this period in great detail in her Autobiography of an Actress. During the tour, her husband died, but she managed to continue on for a few more years.

Preservation Work

Several years after the death of her husband, Mowatt married wealthy newspaper editor William Foushee Richie in a lavish wedding and moved to Richmond, Virginia. During this time, she helped raise funds for the preservation of Mount Vernon, serving as secretary for the first preservation society in the country. In 1860, with the outbreak of the Civil War, she left her husband and returned to Europe where she continued her writing career for the rest of her life.

Legacy

Today, Mowat is viewed as one of the first American women to achieve success as a playwright, and as well as a prominent dramatic performer, and is credited with bringing a level of prestige and respect for female actresses during her time.

Through cleverness, talent, and an ability to play many societal roles by showing delicate refinement when required, Anna Cora Mowatt was able to retain her membership in the upper class while being an independent career woman, and publicly acclaimed as an actress. She did not join the women’s rights movement of the time. However, her female characters often fight back against the societal position they find themselves in. The fact that almost every one of her publications are available in digitalized form indicates the lasting power of her writing.

In Her Own Words

The following excerpt is from The Autobiography of an Actress.

Words of Warning to Young Aspirants

Unless an actress in anticipation is willing to encounter disappointment in myriad unlooked-for shapes, to study incessantly, and find that her closest study is insufficient; to endure an amount and kind of fatigue which she never dreamed of before; if she feel the “grasshopper a burden,”* and the “crumpled rose leaf”* an inconvenience to her slumber, I would bid her shun the stage. But if she be prepared to meet petty as well as formidable trials, (the former are often more difficult to bear than the later;) if she be sustained by some higher purpose, some strong incentive; if she act in obedience to the dictates of the “stern lawgiver, Duty,” –then let her enter the profession boldly; by gracing, help to elevate the stage; and add hers to the purifying influence which may dwell within the walls of a theater as securely as any other temple of art. Let her bear in mind that the sometimes degraded name of “actress” can be dignified in her own person. Let her feel, above all things, that the actress must excite reverence as well as admiration. the crowd must honor as well as worship. They can always be made to do the latter at the feet of genius; they can only be compelled to do the former when genius sheds its halo around higher attributes. p. 427 (punctuation is original)

* “grasshopper a burden” = the lightest thing is a burden

* “crumpled rose leaf” = fuss over a trifle