Page:Woman Triumphant.djvu/218

 Gentlewoman of New England."' Three editions of this collection appeared.

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

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 Catherine 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 AntiSlavery 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