Eliza Ware Farrar (July 12, 1791– April 22, 1870) was an American author who wrote several books in
children's literature
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
Children's ...
.
Early years
Eliza was born in
Dunkirk, France
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France. During her early life, she and her family left
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
during the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
and moved to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
where she was educated. Due to bad investments, her family lost everything and she was sent to
New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast region. Up throug ...
to live with her grandparents. Here, she was an active member of the
Friends Meeting
A Friends meeting house is a meeting house of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), where meeting for worship is usually held.
Typically, Friends meeting houses are simple and resemble local residential buildings. Steeples, spires, and ...
, a religious society for
Quakers
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
; however, she was eventually disowned by this organization for her liberal views as a
New Light
The terms Old Lights and New Lights (among others) are used in Protestant Christian circles to distinguish between two groups who were initially the same, but have come to a disagreement. These terms originated in the early 18th century from a spl ...
.
Career
In 1828, she married
John Farrar
John Clifford Farrar ( ; born 8 November 1946) is an Australian music producer, songwriter, arranger, singer, and guitarist. As a musician, Farrar is a former member of several rock and roll groups including The Mustangs (1963–64), The Stra ...
, a professor of mathematics at
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
.
Between the years 1830 and 1837, Eliza was most active in her writing, and most of her works were published in Boston, Massachusetts. With these publications, she was recorded as Mrs. John Farrar, but even still she was a known name and revered as a respectable individual based on her works. In 1834, she appeared in the ''American Annals of Education'' for the announcement of her upcoming book ''The Letter-Writer''. Although there is not a public version available, Eliza also wrote "Memorials of the Life of Elizabeth Rotch, Being the Recollections of a Mother, by her Daughter, Eliza Farrar." This memorial, along with a collection of correspondences between Eliza and her family, is held by the
New Bedford Whaling Museum
The New Bedford Whaling Museum is a museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States that focuses on the history, science, art, and culture of the international whaling industry, and the "Old Dartmouth" region (now the city of New Bedford and ...
, and the Massachusetts Historical Society also has a collection of the Rotch's which includes personal correspondences of Eliza.
From here, Eliza Ware Farrar disappeared from recorded public life for an extended period of time while she tended to her husband in the final years of his life. After his death in 1853, she returned to release ''Recollections of Seventy Years'' in which she discuses her life in an
autobiographical
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life.
It is a form of biography.
Definition
The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...
fashion.
In 1870, Eliza died while she was in
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, and the seat of Hampden County. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ...
seeking medical attention. Farrar donated her husband's collection of books to form the original collection of the Lincoln Public Library.
Selected works
* ''The Children's Robinson Crusoe'' (Boston, 1830) - coauthored with Defoe Daniel
* ''The Story of the life of Lafayette'' (1831)
* ''John Howard'' (Cambridge, 1833)
* ''Youth's Letter-Writer'' (1834)
*''The Adventures of Congo in Search of his Master'' (Boston, 1835) - coauthored with William Gardnier
*''The Young Lady’s Friend'' (Boston, 1836)
* ''Recollections of Seventy Years'' (Boston, 1866)