Constance Fenimore Woolson
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Constance Fenimore Woolson (March 5, 1840 – January 24, 1894) was an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. She was a grandniece of James Fenimore Cooper, and is best known for fictions about the
Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...
region, the American South, and American expatriates in Europe.


Life and writings


In America: the story-writer

Woolson was born in
Claremont, New Hampshire Claremont is the only city in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 12,949 at the 2020 census. History Pre-colonial native populations Before colonial settlement, the Upper Connecticut River Valley was home to the Pe ...
, but her family soon moved to
Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
, after the deaths of three of her sisters from
scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as Scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'' a Group A streptococcus (GAS). The infection is a type of Group A streptococcal infection (Group A strep). It most commonly affects childr ...
. Woolson was educated at the Cleveland Female Seminary and a
boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...
in New York. She traveled extensively through the midwest and northeastern regions of the U.S. during her childhood and young adulthood. Woolson's father died in 1869. The following year she began to publish fiction and
essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
s in magazines such as ''
The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' and '' Harper's Magazine''. Her first full-length publication was a
children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...
, ''The Old Stone House'' (1873). In 1875 she published her first volume of short stories, ''Castle Nowhere: Lake-Country Sketches'', based on her experiences in the
Great Lakes region The Great Lakes region of North America is a binational Canadian–American region that includes portions of the eight U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin along with the Canadian p ...
, especially Mackinac Island. From 1873 to 1879 Woolson spent winters with her mother in St. Augustine, Florida. During these visits she traveled widely in the South which gave her material for her next collection of short stories, ''Rodman the Keeper: Southern Sketches'' (1880). After her mother's death in 1879, Woolson went to Europe, staying at a succession of hotels in England, France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany.


In Europe: the novelist

Woolson published her first novel ''
Anne Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...
'' in 1880, followed by three others: '' East Angels'' (1886), ''
Jupiter Lights Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth th ...
'' (1889) and ''
Horace Chase Horace B. Chase (December 25, 1810September 1, 1886) was an American Democratic politician and Milwaukee County pioneer. He was the 14th mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, (1862) and represented southern Milwaukee County in the Wisconsin State Asse ...
'' (1894). In 1883 she published the novella ''
For the Major For or FOR may refer to: English language *For, a preposition *For, a complementizer *For, a grammatical conjunction Science and technology * Fornax, a constellation * for loop, a programming language statement * Frame of reference, in physics ...
'', a story of the postwar South that has become one of her most respected fictions. In the winter of 1889–1890 she traveled to
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and
Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
, which resulted in a collection of travel sketches, '' Mentone, Cairo and Corfu'' (published posthumously in 1896). In 1893 Woolson rented an elegant apartment in the
Palazzo Orio Semitecolo Benzon Palazzo Orio Semitecolo Benzon is a Gothic palace in Venice, Italy, built in the 14th century. The palazzo is located in the Dorsoduro district and overlooks the Grand Canal between Casa Santomaso and Casa Salviati. History Built by the Orio fa ...
on the
Grand Canal of Venice The Grand Canal ( it, Canal Grande ; vec, Canal Grando, anciently ''Canałasso'' ) is a channel in Venice, Italy. It forms one of the major water-traffic corridors in the city. One end of the canal leads into the lagoon near the Santa Luc ...
. Suffering from influenza and depression, she either jumped or fell to her death from a fourth story window in the apartment in January 1894, surviving for about an hour after the fall. She was buried in the Protestant Cemetery in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
and is memorialized by
Anne's Tablet ''Anne's Tablet'' is a 1916 Art Nouveau sculptural installation by William Ordway Partridge located within Mackinac Island State Park adjacent to Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island. Consisting of stone benches and a bronze plaque, the overlook wa ...
on Mackinac Island, Michigan, and a niche with a slender silver trumpet vase in Christ Church in Cooperstown, New York. Two volumes of her short stories appeared after her death: '' The Front Yard and Other Italian Stories'' (1895) and '' Dorothy and Other Italian Stories'' (1896).


Selected works

Selected works of Constance Fenimore Woolson were printed (and reprinted) in several volumes of family biography by Woolson's niece, Clare Benedict. ''Five Generations: 1785-1923'' is the general title for three volumes published in 1930: ''Voices Out of the Past'' (Vol. 1), ''Constance Fenimore Woolson'' (Vol. 2), and ''The Benedicts Abroad'' (Vol. 3). Benedict then reprinted the second volume of the series, ''Constance Fenimore Woolson'', in 1932 and added selected published and unpublished materials in "Appendix A." In this reference section, the four volumes Benedict edited are referred to by "Benedict," the volume number, and "(1932)".


Novels

* ''The Old Stone House'', 1873. (Under pseudonym Anne March.) * ''Anne'', 1880-1881. * ''For the Major'', 1882-1883. * ''East Angels'', 1885-1886. * ''Jupiter Lights'', 1889. * ''Horace Chase'', 1893.


Short stories

* ''Castle Nowhere: Lake-Country Sketches'' (1875). * ''Rodman the Keeper: Southern Sketches'' (1880). * ''The Front Yard and Other Italian Stories'' (1895). * ''Dorothy and Other Italian Stories'' (1896).


Poetry

Many of Woolson's poems are now available in the Chadwick-Healey database LION (Literature On-Line). * "Charles Dickens. Christmas, 1870." * "In Memoriam," 1871. * "Alas," 1871. * "Thy Will Be Done," 1871. * "The Herald's Cry," 1872. * "Love Unexpressed," 1872. * "Longing," 1872. * "Walpurgis Night," 1872. * "The Heart of June," 1872. * "Ideal. (The Artist Speaks.)" 1872. * "Corn Fields," 1872. * "Lake Erie in September," 1872. * "Floating. Otsego Lake, September, 1872," 1872. * "October's Song," 1872. * "Christmas in the City," 1872. * "Off Thunder Bay," 1872. * "Two Ways," 1873. * "Sail-Rock, Lake Superior," 1873. * "The Greatest of All is Charity," 1873. * "February," 1873. * "March," 1873. * "Commonplace," 1873. * "Cleopatra," 1873. * "Memory," 1873. * "Heliotrope," 1873. * "Kentucky Belle. (Told in An Ohio Farm-House, 1868)," 1873. * "The Haunting Face," 1873. * "Hero Worship," 1873. * "Delores," 1874. * "At the Smithy. (Pickens County, South Carolina, 1874.)" 1874. * "Indian Summer," 1874. * "Yellow Jessamine," 1874. * "The Florida Beach," 1874. * "Pine-Barrens," 1874. * "Matanzas River," 1874. * "The Legend of Maria Sanchez Creek," 1875. * "A Fire in the Forest," 1875. * "On the Border," 1876. * "Only the Brakesman," 1876. * "Morris Island," 1876. * "Four-Leaved Clover," 1876. * "On a Homely Woman, Dead," 1876. * "To George Eliot," 1876. * "Tom," 1876. * "Forgotten," 1876. * "To Jean Ingelow," 1876. * "Mizpah. Genesis 31.49," 1877. * "Two Women. 1862," 1877. * "'I Too!'" 1877. * "An Intercepted Letter," 1878. * "To Certain Biographers," 1878. * "Mentone," 1884. * "Gettysburg 1876," 1889. * "In March," 1890. * "Detroit River." * "Mackinac–Revisited." * "Clara 'Bright, Illustrious.'" * "Contrast. Six O'Clock Broadway." * "Plum's Picture." * "We Shall Meet Them Again." * "Gentleman Waife. (The Animal Kingdom.)" * "Martins on the Telegraph Wire." * "Haj you Chorgotten?" * "The God of February." * "In the December Twilight."


Travel writing and nonfiction

* "The Happy Valley." * "Fairy Island." * "New York. From Our Special Correspondent." * "New York. From Our Special Woman Correspondent." * "Gotham. From Our Own Correspondent." * "Gotham. From Our Own Correspondent." * "Gotham. From Our Own Correspondent." * "Gotham. From Our Own Correspondent." * "A Day of Mystery." * "The Haunted Lake." * "In Search of the Picturesque." * "American Cities–Detroit." * "Round by Propeller." * "Mackinac Island." * "The Wine Islands of Lake Erie." * "Lakeshore Relics." * "A Voyage to the Unknown River." * "The Ancient City." * "The French Broad." * "Up the Ashley and Cooper." * "Lake Superior." * "Mackinac." * "The South Shore of Lake Erie." * "On The Ohio." * "The Oklawaha." * "Pictures of Travel: The Last Summer of the St. Gotthard." * "The Roman May, and a Walk." * "At Mentone." * "Cairo in 1890."''Harper's New Monthly Magazine'' 83 (October–November 1891): 651-74, 828-55. Rpt. * "Corfu and the Ionian Sea."''Harper's New Monthly Magazine'' 85 (August 1892): 351-370. Rpt. * ''Mentone, Cairo, and Corfu. ''


Critical reception

Woolson's short stories have long been regarded as pioneering examples of local color or regionalism. Today, Woolson's novels, short stories, poetry, and travelogues are studied and taught from a range of scholarly and critical perspectives, including feminist, psychoanalytic, gender studies,
postcolonial Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...
, and new historicism. In recent decades, critical work on Woolson has blossomed and teaching of Woolson at the high school and university levels has increased. Sharon L. Dean's ''The Complete Letters of Constance Fenimore Woolson,'' was published in 2012. Anne Boyd Rioux's ''Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist'', published in 2016, is the first full-length biography of Woolson. The Constance Fenimore Woolson Society holds regular conferences and hosts panels at the annual meeting of the American Literature Association and the biennial Society for the Study of American Women Writers conference.


Friendship with Henry James

The relationship between the two writers has prompted much speculation by biographers, especially
Lyndall Gordon Lyndall Gordon (born 4 November 1941) is a British-based biographical and former academic writer, known for her literary biographies. She is a senior research fellow at St Hilda's College, Oxford. Life Born in Cape Town, she had her undergradua ...
in her 1998 book, ''A Private Life of Henry James''. Woolson's most famous story, '' Miss Grief'', has been read as a fictionalization of their friendship, though she had not yet met James when she wrote it. Recent novels such as Emma Tennant's ''Felony'' (2002), David Lodge's '' Author, Author'' (2004), Colm Toibin's '' The Master'' (2004), and Elizabeth Maguire's ''The Open Door'' (2008) have treated the still unclear relationship between Woolson and James.


See also

*
Mary Hartwell Catherwood Mary Hartwell Catherwood (December 16, 1847 – December 26, 1902) was an American writer of popular historical romances, short stories, and poetry. Early in her career she published under her birth name, Mary Hartwell, and under the pseudonym L ...


References


External links


Woolson website with links to texts, criticism and biography, including a list of Woolson's letters and the archives that hold them

Website of the Constance Fenimore Woolson Society
* * * *
"The Lady Novelist"
episode of ''What'sHerName'' podcast with guest Professor Anne Boyd Rioux. {{DEFAULTSORT:Woolson, Constance Fenimore 1840 births 1894 deaths 19th-century American novelists 19th-century American poets 19th-century American women writers American women novelists Burials in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome People from Claremont, New Hampshire Suicides by jumping in Italy Novelists from New Hampshire American women poets American expatriates in Italy 1890s suicides