# Woman of the Century/Anna Elizabeth Dickinson

​ANNA ELIZABETH DICKINSON DICKINSON, Miss Anna Elizabeth, orator, author, playwright, actor, reformer and philanthropist, born 28th October, 1842, in Philadelphia. Pa. Her father, John Dickinson, died in 1844, leaving his family in straitened circumstances. Anna was sent to the Friends' free school, as her parents belonged to that society. Her early life was full of struggles against adverse conditions. She studied earnestly and read enthusiastically. Whenever she earned any money, she spent it for books. When she was only fourteen years old, she wrote an article on slavery for the "Liberator." She made her début as a public speaker in 1857, in a meeting for discussion held by the Progressive Friends, chiefly interested in the anti-slavery movement. One of the men delivered an insolent tirade against women, and Anna took up the cudgel in behalf of her sex and worsted her insulter. From that time she spoke frequently, generally on slavery and temperance. In 1859 and 1860 she taught school in Berks county. Pa., and in 1861, from April to December, she was employed in the United States Mint in Philadelphia. She was dismissed from the Mint because, in a speech in West Chester, she said that the battle of Ball's Bluff "was lost, not through ignorance and incompetence, but through the treason of the commanding general (McClellan)." After dismissal she made a profession of lecturing, adding political subjects to her former ones. William Lloyd Garrison, who heard one of her addresses in Kennett. Pa., named her "The Girl Orator," and invited her to speak in the Fraternity Course in Music Hall, Boston, Mass., in 1862. She spoke on "The National Crisis." She attracted attention and was engaged to speak in New Hampshire, in Connecticut, in New York City and in Philadelphia. From that time till the end of the Civil War she spoke on war issues. In 1863 she was engaged to deliver a series of addresses, in the gubernatorial campaign, throughout the coal regions, as the male orators were afraid to enter those regions so soon after the draft riots. On 16th January, 1864, she spoke in Washington, D. C, and donated the proceeds, over $1,000, to the Freedmen's Relief Society. She delivered many addresses in camps and hospitals. After the war-echoes ceased, she spoke from the lyceum platform chiefly, her lectures being on "Reconstruction" and "Woman's Work and Wages." In 1869 she visited Utah, and afterward she lectured on "Whited Sepulchres," referring to Mormonism. Her subsequent lectures were "Demagogues and Workingmen." "Joan of Arc," and "Between Us Be Truth," the last-named devoted to Missouri and Pennsylvania, in 1873, where obnoxious social evil bills were up for discussion. In 1876 Miss Dickinson decided to leave the lecture platform and go upon the stage. She made her début in "A Crown of Thorns," a play written by herself, and her reception was unfavorable. She next essayed Shakespearean tragic roles, including Hamlet and others. She afterwards gave dramatic readings, but the stage and the dramatic platform were not suited to her, and she returned to the lecture platform. She gave a number of brilliant lectures, "Platform and Stage," "For Yourself," and others. In 1880 she wrote a play, "The American Girl," for Fanny Davenport, which was moderately successful. Among Miss Dickinson's published works are "What Answer?" a novel (Boston, 1868). "A Paying Investment" (Boston, 1876), and "A Ragged Register of People, Places and Opinions" (New York, 1879). Among the plays written by her are "Aurelian," written for John McCullough, but never produced, as his failing powers prevented "A Crown of Thorns" and "The Test of Honor." After ​leaving the stage, in 1883, Miss Dickinson made her home with her family in Pittston, Pa. In 1891 she again came before the public, through family difficulties and through a suit brought against the Republican managers of the Presidential campaign for services rendered by her in 1888. In 1892 she delivered a number of lectures. She has been under treatment for some time for failing health. Miss Dickinson in her younger days was a woman of singular powers of sarcasm, of judgment, of dissection of theories and motives, and of eloquence that can be understood only by those who have heard her on the platform. She has a strong, fine, intelligent face, self-possession, courage that enabled her to stand her ground when fired at by striking miners in Pennsylvania, and all the endowments of presence, voice, wit, pathos and intense dramatic fervor that go to make the great orator. Her work in each line was distinctly marked. In her school work, her novels, her sketches, her lectures, she was unique. Her plays contain passages of undisputed greatness, of poetic beauty and of sublime pathos. She acquired an ample fortune through her lectures, but she has given away the bulk of it in all kinds of charities.