LYDIA HUNTLEY

See also:

• LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY (1791-1865)

SIGOURNEY (1791-1865)  , American author, was born in Norwich, Connecticut, on the 1st of September 1791 . She was educated in Norwich and Hartford . After conducting a private school for young ladies in Norwich, she conducted a similar school in Hartford from 1814 until 1819, when she was married to Charles Sigourney, a Hartford merchant . She contributed more than two thousand articles to many (nearly 300) periodicals, and wrote more than fifty books . She died in Hartford, on the loth of June 1865 . Her books include Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse (1815); Traits of the Aborigines of America (1822), a poem; A Sketch of Connecticut Forty Years Since (1824); Poems (1827); Letters to Young Ladies (1833), one of her best-known books; Sketches (1834); Poetry for Children (1834); Zinzendorf, and Other Poems (1835); Olive Buds (1836); Letters to Mothers (1838), republished in London; Pocahontas, and Other Poems (1841); Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands (1842), descriptive of her trip to Europe in 184o; Scenes in My Native Land (1844); Letters to My Pupils (1851); Olive Leaves (1851); The Faded Hope (1852), in memory of her only son, who died when he was nineteen years old; Past Meridian (1854); The Daily Counsellor (1858), poems; Gleanings (186o), selections from her verse; The Man of Uz, and Other Poems (1862); and Letters of Life (1866), giving an account of her career . She was one of the most popular writers of her day, both in America and in England, and was called " the American Hemans." Her writings were characterized by fluency, grace and quiet reflection on nature, domestic and religious life, and philanthropic questions; but they were too often sentimental, didactic and commonplace to have much literary value . Some of her blank verse and pictures of nature suggest Bryant . Among her most successful poems are " Niagara " and " Indian Names." Throughout her life she took an active interest in philanthropic and educational work .