St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-05-11
American Literary Women.

Magazine.
American Literary Women.
The current number of the Literary
World makes a serious and we are in
clined to believe an equally true
charge that, practically, we have no
American women of letters who hold
any permanent power eve do not
mean to be ungallant,' says this jour
nal, and the ladies will please pardon
us but have we any American wOm-
en- of letters. American men of letters
we certainly have-Or have had. men
worthy to stand by the side of any
but the very chief of the men of letters
across the sea /; but where in America
can we find a George Eliot or a Mrs.
Browning 7"
The question is not one that calls
for gallantry, but rather for truth. If
there are no American women of let
teTs the loss is quite as much to men
as to women, and the matter is one of
purely abstract intellectual interest.
The World glances back at the past
and says: "We have had our Anne
Bradstreet, our Hannah Adams, our
Philis Wheatley, our Mrs Sigourney,
our Margaret Fuller, our Alice and
Phoebe Cary, our Fanny Fern. And
who were these OF Margaret Fuller
doubtless we shall hear and know
more"
The system of selection in this emu
meration is not quite clear. Except
Margaret Fuller what name among
these possesses permanent significance,
unless it be that of a rdra driS i'll the
days when woman with any claims
to literature was almost All anomaly.
There are women of to-day who are
as original forces as were Anne Brad
street, Hannah Adams, Phillis Wheat
ley or Mrs. Sigourney. Without in
vidiOus comparison, Lydia Maria
Child was, both as a woman of letters
and a woman of influence on the times
in which she lived, of far more impor-
tance than Mrs. Sigourney. Intellectu-
ally, and purely in literary work,
which is the point under consideration
now, Mrs. Child's scope was greater
and finer than Mrs. SigOurney's. Julia
Ward HOwe's "Battle Hymn will live
when the Tenth Muse" is quite for-
gotten. A volume of poems brought
ont now with such an astounding title
page as that of Mistress Anne Brad
street would be indeed an absurd
affair. She chrOnicled her volume as
"A Complete Discourse and Descrip-
ton of the Four Elements, Constitu-
tions, Ages of Men, Seasons of the
Year, together with an Exact EpitOme
of the Four MOnarchies, viz, the ASsy-
rian, Persian, Grecian, Roman, with
divers other pleasant and serious
| poems"
Fancy the merriment with which we
| should now greet such Il modest an
nOuncement of an author.
Alice and Phoebe Cary and Fanny
Fern belong, practically, to modern
life. The poems of the Cary sisters
contain no one lyric equal to many
written by Nora Perry. That they
wrote at all may have been remarka-
BILE that their poems have staying
qualities is not true. The sisters We're
natural rhymers, and occasionally, as
in Phoebe Cary's "Nearer Home,
caught higher quality than rhyme,
but Il review of their works in their
tOtality is inetfably weak and monOt-
onous. The perfect note of music,
the lyric force that characterizes the
poems of Nora Perry, insure them IL
niche III which to live.
As for Fanny Fern, she wrote a sue
cessiOn of satirical half-colnmn arti-
cles, usually sparkling, not always too
delicate, and utterly devoid of one
thought that could elevate, strengthen
or ennoble life. She could tear down,
but not build up. Her literary talent
was destructive, not constructive. As
for her stories, Rose Hail." and per
haps one or two others, they are only
to be found i'll collections that have
preserved some Ladies' Annual OF
"Gift book for intellectual satisfac-
ton. The children's stories of Fanny
Fern have been so far surpassed by
Miss Alcott and other writer's of juve-
nile literature, that they cannot hold
the dignity of comparison.
When it is asked where, among
American women, can be found Il
George Eliot, a Mrs. Browning, 4
Madame Dudevant, we have no reply
AS the Literary World well says, Mrs
Stoves "Uncle Toms Cabin" was not
literature, but scenic effect, and Mrs
Stoves later writings have not con
firmed her seat in Il ParthenOn.
1t should be considered, however
in regard to latter-day literature, that
women writer's are no longer rare, but
the woman who does not write Will
fair credit is almost exceptional rather
than the woman who docs. HaC
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Sarah Orm,
Jewett, Rose Terry Cooke, Harrie
Prescott SpOffOrd, Edith Thomas anC
others that could be named, written
generation or more ago, their wOrl
would have gotten embalmed in tina
admiring fame that preserves til,
names of Anne Bradstreet and Philli
Wheatley.
Never in the history of American
literature has there been such an open
ing for the woman of genius as now
But the woman who shall make a per
: manent impress on letters must b
) one of trained thought; of scientit
attainment and philosophical culture
. and as the Literary World goes OIL
to say:
l "The woman of letters must hav
= some masculinity in her composition
t her finer metal must be streaked witt
iron ore she must carry the sledge
hammer in her hand as well as wea
. the flower at her throat. She must b
e Miriam, Deborah, prophecies as wei
e as poet; a woman who fathOms phi
t losophies AS well as fashions, who ca
t thunder as well as tighten"
= George Eliot, Mrs. Browning an
:. Margaret Fuller made themselves ele
Il mental powers in literature primaril
by the force of great culture. With
II out this solid basis of classics an
r philosophy, neither their facility fo
expression or lyric force would hav
It made its permanent impress. Th
s. great lack in American literary won
4 en- of to-day, is the lack of traine
= power of expression of a thOroug
intellectual training to enable them I