Elizabeth F. Ellet American writer

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In: 19th Century Women, Authors, Playwrights, Poets, Writing

Throughout history, many important accomplishments by women have been overshadowed by the so-called scandalous things they have reportedly done. Elizabeth Fries Ellet (October 18, 1818 – June 3, 1877) is a perfect example of this. A noted writer and historian of her time, whose wide-ranging work is still consulted today, Ellet has gone down in history, not as a gifted writer, but as one contemporary blog maintains, “a bad woman.” This is despite the fact that all accounts of her “nasty” behavior were recorded by the men directly involved in the scandal. Ellet’s Background Born in Sodus, New York to a well-to-do physician’s family, ElletRead More →

Colonial era black woman

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In: 19th Century Women, Authors, Poets

The women most often forgotten are those who come from times and places where they and their people are outcast and discriminated against. A resident of Hartford, Connecticut, Ann Plato (c. 1823 – ?) is one of these women. Although she was the first African American to publish a book of essays, very little is known about her. Researchers have identified her father, Henry Plato, as Native American, perhaps of the Algonquin, and her mother, Deborah, as African American. What little else we know of her comes from Reverend W. C. Pennington, pastor of the Colored Congregational Church of Hartford and first black graduate ofRead More →

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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In: 19th Century Women, Literature, Poets

How would you feel if you were once an acclaimed poet, but long after your death all that is remembered of your writings are a few clever lines from your poems? Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1900) did not expect to become a writer, but when her family fell on hard times, and they could no longer afford a subscription to her favorite magazine, The New York Mercury, she came up with the idea of submitting three poems. In return, she hoped to earn a subscription. Instead, she received a check for ten dollars. “The check from Leslie was a revelation,” she wrote in her diary. “IRead More →