L is for Lydia Huntley Sigourney
1791–1865
When I was looking for an “L” writer, many more well known writer’s names would pop into my mind. Since I wanted to keep this series to be of not as well known authors, I turned to my sourcebooks for help.
This is where I found what some called “The Songbird of Hartford.” When I chose Lydia, I didn’t know of her Hartford connection. Other Hartford writers included Harriet Beecher Stowe, Great Aunt of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Samuel Clemens, who built his palatial home right next to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
She started two schools for girls. The first school she started was in Norwich, her hometown, in 1911. Her second school was in Hartford in 1814. She had an unhearing pupil and their shared love provided impetus to begin the first school for those who were unhearing. It became the American School for the Deaf.
She published Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse while working directly in education.
She was a very popular poet and writer in the 19th century, but later her work was seen as “overly sentimental” and “simple” yet her mark on other women’s love for writing and self development cannot be set aside by a critic’s opinion. Other critiques said she used her more famous friends as leverage. What is overlooked by these critics is how she inspired other women. While an advocate of traditional gender roles with women’s duties as primarily domestic, she encouraged other women to write and to take a course of continued personal development. Her advice books Letters to Young Ladies, By a Lady and Letters to My Pupils. The Lyceum movement flourished in the 19th century and many groups were named in her honor.
On her headstone is a poem written in her honor by John Greenleaf Whittier:
She sang alone, ere womanhood had known
The gift of song which fills the air to-day:
Tender and sweet, a music all her own
May fitly linger where she knelt to pray
Fun fact: a county seat in Iowa is named for her: Sigourney, Iowa. I am marking it on my list of must-visit places.
Tomorrow: Mariette Holley, often hailed as the Female Mark Twain
This blog post is an entry in the A to Z Challenge. Each day in April (except Sundays) I will be featuring a woman in literary history. If you click on the logo below, you will be introduced to the writing of more than a thousand bloggers writing on a wide variety of topics in April, all from A to Z!
Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She teaches a teleclass/ecourse "Discover the Power of Writing & Telling Engaging, Enlightening Stories" which begins again April 19, 2012. Find details by clicking this link.
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