Ella Cheever Thayer (September 14, 1849 – October 28, 1925) was an American

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

. Born in Maine, she worked as a telegraph operator and published several works in her lifetime.

Biography

She was the daughter of

apothecary ''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Ameri ...

George Augusta Thayer (October 19, 1824 – December 13, 1863) and Rachel Ella Cheever Thayer (October 18, 1823 - May 15, 1907). One sister, Mary Georgie Thayer (October 9, 1869 – March 30, 1912), was a school teacher. Thayer eventually became a

telegraph operator A telegraphist (British English), telegrapher (American English), or telegraph operator is an operator who uses a telegraph key to send and receive the Morse code in order to communicate by land lines or radio. During the Great War the Royal ...

at the Brunswick Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, who used her experience on the telegraph as the basis for her book ''Wired Love, A Romance of Dots and Dashes'', which became a bestseller for 10 years. She was also a playwright, having written '' The Lords of Creation'' in 1883. Her play is reviewed in the book ''On to Victory: Propaganda Plays of the Woman's Suffrage Movement'' by Bettina Friedl, published in 1990 () and it was one of the first

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

plays. She also wrote ''Amber, a Daughter of Bohemia'', a drama in five acts, in 1883. She also wrote short stories for magazines including "The Forgotten Past" in '' Argosy'' (January 1897).

Later life and death

She lived in

Saugus, Massachusetts Saugus is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. The population was 28,619 at the 2020 census. Saugus is known as the site of the first integrated iron works in North America. History Native Americans ...

. Thayer died of

liver cancer Liver cancer (also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy) is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary (starts in liver) or secondary (meaning cancer which has spread from elsewhere to th ...

; her ashes were placed on November 1, 1925 in Bigelow Chapel,

Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural cemetery, rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middl ...

, Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thayer, Ella Cheever 1849 births 1925 deaths Writers from Portland, Maine People from Saugus, Massachusetts 19th-century American novelists American women novelists American women short story writers American women dramatists and playwrights 19th-century American women writers 19th-century American short story writers Hello Girls Novelists from Maine