Margaret Junkin Preston (May 19, 1820 – March 28, 1897) was an American poet and author.

Biography

She was born in

Milton, Pennsylvania Milton is a borough in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States, on the West Branch Susquehanna River, north of Harrisburg, located in Central Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River Valley. It is approximately 10 miles upriver from the mouth ...

, in 1820.''Southern Life in Southern Literature'', Maurice Garland Fulton (ed.), Kessinger Publishing, 2003, p. 26

/ref> Her father was

George Junkin Reverend George Junkin D.D., LL.D (November 1, 1790 – May 20, 1868) was an American educator and Presbyterian minister who served as the first and third president of Lafayette College and later as president of Miami University and Washington ...

, a

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 and college president.Charles William Hubner, ''Representative Southern Poets'', BiblioLife, 2008, p. 14

/ref> She learned

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

at the age of twelve. She married Major

John Thomas Lewis Preston John Thomas Lewis Preston (April 25, 1811 – July 15, 1890) was an American educator and military officer from Virginia. He was a primary founder and organizer of the Virginia Military Institute, and was one of its first two faculty members. ...

in 1857, a professor of

Virginia Military Institute la, Consilio et Animis (on seal) , mottoeng = "In peace a glorious asset, In war a tower of strength""By courage and wisdom" (on seal) , established = , type = Public senior military college , accreditation = SACS , endowment = $696.8 mill ...

. Her sister, Elinor (Ellie), had in 1853 married

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21, 1824 – May 10, 1863) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, considered one of the best-known Confederate commanders, after Robert E. Lee. He played a prominent role in near ...

, a colleague of Preston's at VMI. Major Preston served on the staff of Stonewall Jackson during the Civil War. She wrote many volumes of prose and poetry, and published some of her writing in the ''

Southern Literary Messenger The ''Southern Literary Messenger'' was a periodical published in Richmond, Virginia, from August 1834 to June 1864, and from 1939 to 1945. Each issue carried a subtitle of "Devoted to Every Department of Literature and the Fine Arts" or some vari ...

'' and ''

Graham's Magazine ''Graham's Magazine'' was a nineteenth-century periodical based in Philadelphia established by George Rex Graham and published from 1840 to 1858. It was alternatively referred to as ''Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine'' (1841–1842, and J ...

''. She also published a few articles in ''

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 ...

''. Preston's 1856 novel Silverwood is a subtle exploration of the clash between traditional values of honor and family and the new market economy that was sweeping through the United States and the Shenandoah Valley. She is remembered for espousing the Confederacy in her poems, and she was known informally as the Poet Laureate of the Confederacy. She became blind in the late 1880s, and died in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

in 1897.

Bibliography

*''Silverwood, a Book of Memories'' (1856
at Internet Archive
*''Beechenbrook: A Rhyme of War'' (1865) *''Old Song and New'' (1870) *''Cartoons'' (1875) *''Centennial Poem for Washington and Lee University: Lexington, Virginia, 1775–1885'' (1885) *''A Handful of Monographs: Continental and English'' (1886) *''For Love's Sake: Poems of Faith and Comfort'' (1886) *''Colonial Ballads, Sonnets and Other Verse'' (1887) *''Semi-Centennial Ode for the Virginia Military Institute: Lexington, Virginia, 1839–1889'' (1889) *''Aunt Dorothy: An Old Virginia Plantation Story'' (1890)

References

External links

* * *
Papers of Preston
at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Preston, Margaret Junkin 1820 births 1897 deaths 19th-century American poets 19th-century American women writers American women poets National symbols of the Confederate States of America People from Lexington, Virginia People from Northumberland County, Pennsylvania Poets from Pennsylvania Poets from Virginia Poets of the Confederacy Virginia Military Institute people War poetry