Maria Jane McIntosh (1803 in
Sunbury, Georgia
Sunbury is a ghost town in Liberty County, Georgia. Established in 1758, the town was mostly abandoned by the mid-1800s.
The town is located on the south bank of the Midway River, in an area that was first settled by Europeans in the 1750s. Th ...
– 25 February 1878 in
) was an American writer. She began her literary career using the pseudonym "Aunt Kitty". She used contrasting pairs of characters to demonstrate her moral lesson.
Biography
Maria's father, Major Lachlan McIntosh fought in the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
, afterwards establishing a law practice in Sunbury, and starting a family.
Maria was educated in the Academy of Sunbury, and moved to New York City in 1835 to live with her brother, James M. McIntosh, after the death of both of her parents.
Having lost her fortune in the
Panic of 1837
The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major depression, which lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down, westward expansion was stalled, unemployment went up, and pessimism abound ...
, she adopted authorship as a means of support.
Under the pen name of “Aunt Kitty” she published a juvenile story entitled “Blind Alice” that at once became popular (1841), and was followed by others (New York, 1843), the whole series being issued in one volume as ''Aunt Kitty's Tales'' (1847). On the recommendation of the tragedian
Macready, these and many of her subsequent tales were reprinted in London. Her writings are each illustrative of a moral sentiment.
Family
She was the sister of naval officer James McKay McIntosh.
Works
* ''Conquest and Self-Conquest'' (1844)
* ''Praise and Principle'' (1845)
* ''Two Lives, to Seem and to Be'' (1846)
* ''Aunt Kitty's Tales'' (1847)
* ''Charms and Counter Charms'' (1848)
* ''Woman in America: Her Work and Reward'' (1850)
* ''
The Lofty and the Lowly'' (1852)
* ''Evenings at Donaldson Manor'' (1852)
* ''Emily Herbert'' (1855)
* ''Violet, or the Cross and Crown'' (1856)
* ''Meta Gray'' (1858)
* ''Two Pictures'' (1863)
Notes
References
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External links
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1803 births
1878 deaths
19th-century American novelists
American children's writers
American women novelists
American women essayists
American women children's writers
19th-century American women writers
19th-century American essayists
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