Katherine Prescott Wormeley (January 14, 1830 – August 4, 1908) was an American

nurse Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health c ...

in the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, author, editor, and translator of

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

literary works. Her first name is frequently spelled as "Katharine".

Biography

Born to Admiral Ralph Randolph Wormeley and Caroline Preble in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

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 ...

, the daughter of a naval officer, Katherine Prescott Wormeley emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

at a young age. 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 ...

, she played a role in the work of the

United States Sanitary Commission The United States Sanitary Commission (USSC) was a private relief agency created by federal legislation on June 18, 1861, to support sick and wounded soldiers of the United States Army (Federal / Northern / Union Army) during the American Civil W ...

, a civilian agency set up to coordinate the volunteer efforts of women and men who wanted to contribute to the war effort, with noted landscape designer

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co- ...

and the Rev. Henry Bellows. The Commission was a volunteer affiliate of the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

. She served as a nurse with the Commission and was later head nurse at the Army Hospital at Portsmouth Grove near

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

. She lived in Newport, in a cottage designed by

Charles Follen McKim Charles Follen McKim (August 24, 1847 – September 14, 1909) was an American Beaux-Arts architect of the late 19th century. Along with William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White, he provided the architectural expertise as a member of the partn ...

, that was next door to

John La Farge John La Farge (March 31, 1835 – November 14, 1910) was an American artist whose career spanned illustration, murals, interior design, painting, and popular books on his Asian travels and other art-related topics. La Farge is best known for ...

's house.LaFarge, John, S.J. ''The Manner Is Ordinary''. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1954, pp. 41-42. Katherine Prescott Wormeley died on August 4, 1908, at her summer home in

Jackson, New Hampshire Jackson is a town in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,028 at the 2020 census, up from 816 at the 2010 census. Jackson is a resort area in the White Mountains. Parts of the White Mountain National Forest are in ...

. She is buried in the

Island Cemetery The Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery are a pair of separate cemeteries on Farewell and Warner Street in Newport, Rhode Island. Together they contain over 5,000 graves, including a colonial-era slave cemetery and Jewish graves. The pair ...

in Newport, Rhode Island.

Works

She was one of the best known translators of her time, having translated from the French language the complete works of

Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...

(40 vols., 1883–97) for American readers. She also translated the Narrative of Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de France, the memoirs of Madame de Motteville on

Anne of Austria Anne of Austria (french: Anne d'Autriche, italic=no, es, Ana María Mauricia, italic=no; 22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666) was an infanta of Spain who became Queen of France as the wife of King Louis XIII from their marriage in 1615 unti ...

, as well as works by

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...

(6 vols., 1892),

Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, GE (16 January 16752 March 1755), was a French soldier, diplomat, and memoirist. He was born in Paris at the Hôtel Selvois, 6 rue Taranne (demolished in 1876 to make way for the Boulevard Saint-Germain). T ...

Alphonse Daudet Alphonse Daudet (; 13 May 184016 December 1897) was a French novelist. He was the husband of Julia Daudet and father of Edmée, Léon and Lucien Daudet. Early life Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the ''bo ...

, and

Alexandre Dumas Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...

, among others. In 1904 she published a 2-volume selection of essays translated from

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (; 23 December 1804 – 13 October 1869) was a French literary critic. Early life He was born in Boulogne, educated there, and studied medicine at the Collège Charlemagne in Paris (1824–27). In 1828, he se ...

's ''Causeries du Lundi'', ''Portraits de Femmes'', and ''Portraits Littéraires''. She also published ''The U. S. Sanitary Commission'' (Boston, 1863). A volume of her letters from the headquarters of the Commission with the

Army of the Potomac The Army of the Potomac was the principal Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the surrender of the Confedera ...

during the peninsular campaign in 1862 was published as ''Letters from Headquarters during the Peninsular Campaign''. ''The Other Side of War'' was published in 1888, and ''Life of Balzac'' in 1892.

Family

Her sisters

Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer Mary Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer (July 26, 1822 – January 4, 1904) was an English-American writer, both of original works and translations. Early life Elizabeth was born on July 26, 1822, in London. She was the daughter of Admiral Ralph Randolp ...

and Ariana Randolph (Wormeley) Curtis (b. 1835) were also writers.

References

Sources

George M. Fredrickson George M. Fredrickson (July 16, 1934 – February 25, 2008) was an American author, activist, historian, and professor. He was the Edgar E. Robinson Professor of United States History at Stanford University until his retirement in 2002. After hi ...

(1965/1993), ''The Inner Civil War: Northern Intellectuals and the Crisis of the Union'', reprint with new preface, Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Selected list of works by Katherine Prescott Wormeley at Barnes and Noble

April 16, 1898 ''New York Times'' article titled "''War and Navies - Miss Wormeley's Volume on the Cruel Side of War''"

August 6, 1908 ''New York Times'' obituary for Katherine Prescott Wormeley

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wormeley, Katherine Prescott 1830 births 1908 deaths French–English translators English emigrants to the United States Burials in Rhode Island 19th-century American translators 19th-century American women writers 19th-century American writers American Civil War nurses American women nurses