Elizabeth Bogart (

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

s, Adelaide and Estelle; 1795 – May 12, 1879) was an American author of

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...

and

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She was published in numerous periodicals including the ''

New-York Mirror The ''New-York Mirror'' was a weekly newspaper published in New York City from 1823 to 1842, succeeded by ''The New Mirror'' in 1843 and 1844. Its producers then launched a daily newspaper named ''The Evening Mirror'', which published from 1844 ...

''. Rare for a woman at the time, Bogart was financially independent and wrote solely for her own pleasure, not out of a need for wages. One of her most famous poems, "He came too late," tells of a woman who spurns a fickle lover who did not tend to her. Her work covers a wide range of topics, including family, nature, relationships and femininity.

Early life

Bogart was born in New York City in 1795. Her father, Reverend David Schuyler Bogart, was a Columbia College graduate and

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

minister with

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

heritage whose family had been in New York for generations. Bogart grew up in and received her education in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, which at that time was an isolated town on the eastern part of

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

. In 1813 the family moved to

Hempstead Harbor Hempstead Harbor (also known as Hempstead Bay) is a bay hugging the northern coast of Long Island, New York. Located off of the Long Island Sound, it forms the northernmost portion of the political border between the Nassau County towns of Oyst ...

, eighty miles west. It was there she began writing and later submitting her writing to publications.

Career

In 1825, her poem "Stanzas" was published in the '' Long Island Star'' under the pen name "Adelaide." Soon after that, in 1826, she moved into the city of New York and began writing regularly for the ''New-York Mirror'' as "Estelle". She claimed a great love for the

Muses In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the p ...

, saying, "Without this love, my life would have been divested of half its pleasures; and without the leisure to indulge it, I think I should have felt as if time, however otherwise employed, were only wasted." Though she wrote prose rarely, her short stories earned her several awards over the course of her life, beginning with a prize from the ''Memorial'' in Boston in 1828 for "The Effect of a Single Folly." She went on to receive awards for "The Forged Note" (1830), "Arlington House" (1844), and "The Heiress, or Romance of Life" (1849). Bogart published a volume of her poetry in 1866, ''Driftings from the Stream of Life: A Collection of Fugitive Poems.'' She had humble expectations for the publication, writing in the foreword, "I can truly say that I do not anticipate any great success for my work, since many of those who would have taken an interest in it have gone before me to the spirit-land."

Personal life

Bogart was a contemporary of writer

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

, who included a short description of her in a collection of his opinions on his literary peers. He described her poetry as "noticeable for nerve, dignity, and finish" and said she had a "countenance full of vivacity and intelligence." She was also friends with fellow writer

Elizabeth Oakes Smith Elizabeth Oakes Smith ( Prince; August 12, 1806 – November 16, 1893) was a poet, fiction writer, editor, lecturer, and women's rights activist whose career spanned six decades, from the 1830s to the 1880s. Most well-known at the start of her ...

, and the two wrote letters frequently. Bogart died on May 12, 1879, at the age of 84. She received a small obituary in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''.

Selected works

* ''Driftings from the Stream of Life: A Collection of Fugitive Poems'' (1866)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bogart, Elizabeth 1795 births 1879 deaths 19th-century American poets 19th-century American women writers People from Long Island Pseudonymous women writers 19th-century pseudonymous writers