Page:Female Prose Writers of America.djvu/460



was born on the 23d of March, 1813, at Charleston, which her own writings have contributed something to render classic ground. Her parents were William and Elizabeth Lee. Her father practised the profession of the law in early life, and sat for a period as member of the State Legislature. Her uncle, Judge Thomas Lee, was, for many years and in several respects, one of the most distinguished citizens of South Carolina. Several others of her connexions were ardently devoted to intellectual cultivation, and thus Mary’s lot fell in a family where every literary tendency was sure to be kindly encouraged and happily developed.

The extreme susceptibility of her feelings prevented her parents from placing her at school until after her tenth year. She was then consigned to the tuition of A. Bolles, Esq., a distinguished teacher of young ladies in Charleston. Here she availed herself with much diligence of her advantages, and laid the foundation of a solid and accurate education.

Genius is seldom destitute of some channel through which to communicate its inspirations to the world. It so happened, that when about twenty years had matured the mind of Mary Lee, and had stored it with a wide range of suggestive acquisitions, a little periodical for youth, edited by Mrs. Caroline Gilman, had been recently started in Charleston, under the title of “The Rose Bud,” which soon after changed its name to “The Southern Rose,” and aspired to some rank of literary pretension. To the pages of this publication Miss Lee contributed her earliest productions, prompted alike by the dictates of generous friendship and of tremulous ambition.

For a considerable time, the signature attached to her pieces was the modest and general one, “A Friend.” As they increased in merit, inquiries as to the authorship began to be multiplied, and at last her personal (418)