Bella Zilfa Spencer ( – ) was an English-born American novelist and early editor of the ''

Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...

,'' She was the first wife of future US Senator

George Eliphaz Spencer George Eliphaz Spencer (November 1, 1836 – February 19, 1893) was an American politician and a U.S. senator from the state of Alabama who also served as an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Biography Born in Champion, N ...

. Bella Zilfa Spencer was born on in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. According to an account of her life published in 1867 she was the daughter of an English man, the second son of a Sir Edward St. Alban, and an Italian mother. The family settled in

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

, where she was orphaned and raised by a foster family. She married at the age of 15, but by 1860 her husband and two children were dead. She published numerous short stories in magazines like ''

Godey's Lady's Book ''Godey's Lady's Book'', alternatively known as ''Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book'', was an American women's magazine that was published in Philadelphia from 1830 to 1878. It was the most widely circulated magazine in the period before the Civil ...

'' and ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

'' and several novels and collections of stories. She was an editor of the ''Saturday Evening Post i''n Philadelphia and later purchased a share of the ownership. In 1862, she married George E. Spencer. George Spencer was a Union Army General during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Following the war, he practiced law in Alabama before becoming a politician there. Bella Spencer died in

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of 1 ...

on 1 August 1867.

Bibliography

* ''Ora, the Lost Wife'' (1864) * ''Tried and True, A Story of the Rebellion'' (1866) * ''Surface and Depth'' (1867)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, Bella Zilfa 1840 births 1867 deaths American women editors American women novelists Created via preloaddraft Novelists from West Virginia