page_title: Martha Perry Lowe
section_title: Marriage and early writing
hierarchical_section_title: Martha Perry Lowe / Career / Marriage and early writing
caption_attribution_description: English: Love in Spain, and Other Poems (1867), by Martha Perry Lowe
context_page_description: Martha Perry Lowe was an American writer of poetry and prose, as well as a social activist and organizer. She supported women's rights, temperance, education, and Unitarian organizations.
  Lowe was born in New Hampshire in 1829, and died in Massachusetts in 1902. Her parents were General Justus Perry and Hannah Wood. She was a descendant of William Wood, the supposed author of New England's Prospects, who left England and settled in Concord in 1638. At the age of 15, she was sent to Sedgwick's 'School for Young Ladies'. After her graduation, she spent a winter in the West Indies, and the following year was passed in Madrid with her brother, who was a member of the Spanish legation.
  In 1857, she married the Rev. Charles Lowe who died in 1874, and at the time of his death was a member of the Somerville school committee.
  In 1871, when the family went to Europe, Lowe corresponded regularly for the Liberal Christian. In Somerville, she was connected with the Unitarian Review. She was the author of several books of prose and poetry; the most noted ones include The Olive and the Pine, Love in Spain, and a Memoir of Charles Lowe.
context_section_description: After her year abroad, Lowe resolved to put into form a poetic souvenir of her travels. During this time, her sister Ellen married Dr. Edward B. Peirson of Salem, Massachusetts. While Lowe was visiting in this new home, she met the Rev. Charles Lowe, pastor of the North Church of that city. They were married in the autumn of 1857. After a trip in the Berkshires, they settled on the Pickman farm, which belonged to Dr. and Mrs. George B. Loring, and was situated about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from Salem. Mr. Lowe at this time was obliged, on account of ill health, to resign his pastorate at the North Church. Their stay on the farm was of short duration, but they were able to secure a nearby cottage close to the water, which they called "Mill-side", where Mrs. Lowe completed her first book, The Olive and the Pine, or Spain and New England. The first part is devoted to Spain, and the latter to New England.  
  Mr. Lowe soon regained health and strength, after a year of rest and change, and accepted a call to the parish of the First Congregational Society in Somerville. In this city, the Lowes established their first home, building a pleasant house on one of the hills commanding a view of Cambridge and Boston; and here their two daughters, Mary Foote and Jeanie Wood, were born. Mrs. Lowe entered into church work; and she also, at the time of the American Civil War, published a second book, called Love in Spain, a dramatic poem. The book also contained poems on the Civil War and on miscellaneous subjects.
  Mr. Lowe twice went South during the war as chaplain. He was chairman of the army committee of the Association, and gave his time and strength to the Freedmen's Aid Society and to the Sanitary Commission. On his return, failing health once more forced him to relinquish his charge at Somerville. He then became secretary of the American Unitarian Association, where his services were valuable during one of the critical periods in the history of the denomination. His ill health compelled him to retire from the secretaryship in 1871. Now that this work was finished, the Lowes, with their daughters, went abroad for nearly two years; spending their winters, on account of Mr. Lowe's health, in southern France, Italy, and Spain; returning to Switzerland and England during the summer months. On their return to Boston, Mr. Lowe started a religious magazine, The Unitarian Review, in the interest of his denomination, in which work Mrs. Lowe assisted him. Mr. Lowe's health declined rapidly during the winter and spring, and it seemed advisable to try the benefit of sea air for the invalid. In the month of June, he went with his family to Swampscott, Massachusetts, where, after an illness of two weeks, he died on June 20, 1874.
caption: Love in Spain, and Other Poems
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