Anna Cora Mowatt

Anna Cora Mowatt (1819-1870). Courtesy Library of Congress and Wikipedia.

Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie (March 5, 1819 - July 21, 1870) was an American poet, playwright, and actress.

Life

Anna Cora Mowatt JKM

Childhood and education

Mowatt was born Anna Cora Ogden in Bordeaux, France, the 10th of 14 children. Her father was Samuel Gouveneur Ogden (1779-1860), an American merchant. Her mother was Eliza Lewis Ogden (1785-1836), granddaughter of Francis Lewis, a signatory to the United States Declaration of Independence.

In 1826, when Anna was 6 years old, the Ogden family returned to the United States.

She attended private schools but was primarily educated at home. From a young age she was encouraged to read and showed a passion for writing and acting.

Career

Mowatt as Beatrice in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

On October 6, 1834, at age 15, Anna eloped with James Mowatt (1805-1849), a prominent and wealthy New York lawyer. They moved to an estate in Flatbush, New York, where her husband encouraged her to continue her education and to write. She wrote of her elopement:

What could a girl of fifteen know of the sacred duties of a wife? With what eyes could she comprehend the new and important life she was entering? She had known nothing but childhood–had scarcely commenced her girlhood. What could she comprehend of the trials, the cares, the hopes, the responsibilities of womanhood? I thought of none of these things. I had always been lighthearted to the point of frivolity. I usually made a jest of everything–yet I did not look on this matter as a frolic. I only remembered I was keeping a promise. I had perfect faith in the tenderness of him to whom I confided myself. I did not in the least realize the novelty of my situation.

Anna Cora Mowatt's debut book, Pelayo, or The Cavern of Covadonga, was published in 1836, then Reviewers Reviewed in 1837 using the pseudonym "Isabel". She wrote articles which were published in Graham's Magazine and Godey's Lady's Book and other periodicals. She wrote a six act play, Gulzara, which was published in New World. Under the pseudonym Henry C. Browning, she wrote a biography of Goethe. Using the pseudonym "Helen Berkley", she wrote two novels: The Fortune Hunter and Evelyn. Evelyn is written in the epistolary style.

In 1841, due to financial problems, Anna became a public reader. Her premiere was attended by Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote of her, "A more radiantly beautiful smile is quite impossible to conceive." Her readings were popular and well attended, but her career as a reader was short lived due to respiratory problems. While recovering from her illness, she returned to her writing.

In 1845, her best-known work, the play Fashion was published. It received rave reviews and opened at the Park Theatre, New York, on March 24, 1845. On June 13, 1845, she made another career move to acting, she debuted at the Park Theatre as Pauline in The Lady of Lyons with great success. Although her next play, Armand, the Child of the People was published in 1847, and also received good reviews, she continued in her acting career. She performed leading roles in Shakespeare (for instance, in a production of Cymbeline in London, 1843), melodramas, and her own plays. She toured the United States and Europe for the next eight years.

On February 15, 1851, her husband, James Mowatt died. After a short break she resumed her acting career. In December 1853, her book Autobiography of an Actress was published. Anna Cora Mowatt's last appearance on the public stage was June 3, 1854.

Later years

On June 7, 1853, Anna married William Foushee Ritchie (? – 1868), son of Thomas Ritchie. Their wedding was a lavish affair, attended by President of the United States, Franklin Pierce and his Cabinet. During the next few years she wrote two more novels, Mimic Life, published in 1855 and Twin Roses, published in 1857. She was also involved in the preservation of George Washington's home, Mount Vernon. Anna left her husband in 1860 and moved to Europe. She wrote the novel Mute Singer, published in 1861. She wrote Fairy Fingers, published in 1865. In 1865, she moved to England, where she wrote The Clergyman's Wife, and Other Sketches in 1867.

Mowatt died in Twickenham, England, on July 21, 1870. She is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London, beside her 1st husband, James Mowatt.

Writing

by Edgar Allan Poe

Her sketches and tales may be said to be cleverly written. They are lively, easy, conventional, scintillating with a species of sarcastic wit, which might be termed good were it in any respect original. In point of style — that is to say, of mere English, they are very respectable. One of the best of her prose papers is entitled "Ennui and its Antidote," published in The Columbian Magazine for June, 1845. The subject, however, is an exceedingly hackneyed one.

In looking carefully over her poems, I find no one entitled to commendation as a whole; in very few of them do I observe even noticeable passages, and I confess that I am surprised and disappointed at this result of my inquiry; nor can I make up my mind that there is not much latent poetical power in Mrs. Mowatt. From some lines addressed to Isabel M——, I copy the opening stanza as the most favourable specimen which I have seen of her verse.

 
 Forever vanished from thy cheek
      Is life's unfolding rose —
 Forever quenched the flashing smile
      That conscious beauty knows !

 Thine orbs are lustrous with a light
      Which ne'er illumes the eye
 Till heaven is bursting on the sight
      And earth is fleeting by.

In this there is much force, and the idea in the concluding quatrain is so well put as to have the air of originality. Indeed, I am not sure that the thought of the last two lines is not original; — at all events it is exceedingly natural and impressive. I say "natural," because, in any imagined ascent from the orb we inhabit, when heaven should "burst on the sight" — in other words, when the attraction of the planet should be superseded by that of another sphere, then instantly would the "earth" have the appearance of "fleeting by." The versification, also, is much better here than is usual with the poetess. In general she is rough, through excess of harsh consonants. The whole poem is of higher merit than any which I can find with her name attached; but there is little of the spirit of poesy in anything she writes. She evinces more feeling than ideality.

Publications

Poetry

• Pelayo; or, The cavern of Covadonga (verse novel, as "Isabel"). New York: Harper, 1836.

Plays

• Fashion; or, Life in New York: A comedy in five acts. 1845; New York: Samuel French, 1849; London: W. Newberry, 1850.
• Armand; or, The peer and the peasant: A play in five acts. New York: Samuel French, 1849; London: W. Newberry, 1849.
• Plays. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1854.

Novels

• The Fortune Hunter; or, The adventures of a man about town: A novel of New York. New York: J. Winchester / New World Press, 1844.
  • The Fortune Hunter: A novel of New York society. Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson, 1854.
• Evelyn; Or, A heart unmasked: A tale of domestic life. Philadelphia: J. Zeibler, 1845.
• Twin Roses: A narrative. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1857.
• Fairy Fingers: A novel. New York: G.W. Carleton, 1865.
• The Mute Singer: A novel. New York: G.W. Carleton, 1866.

Short fiction

• Mimic Life; or, Before and behind the curtain: A series of narratives (novellas; includes "Stella," "The Prompter's Daughter," and "The Unknown Tragedian"). Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1856.
  • (edited by Jeffrey H. Richards). Copley Publishing, 2001. ISBN 1-58390-013-6
• The Clergyman's Wife and other sketches. New York: G.W. Carleton, 1867.
• Italian Life and Legends. New York: Carleton, 1870.

Non-fiction

• Reviewers Reviewed: A satire. New York: privately printed, 1837.
• Autobiography of an Actress; or, Eight years on the stage. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, & Fields, 1854.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of U.S. poets
• List of English-language playwrights

External links

Plays

• Fashion; or, Life in New York. A comedy, in five acts

Books

• Anna Cora Mowatt at the Online Books Page
• Works by Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie at Internet Archive
• Anna Cora Mowatt at Amazon.com

About

• Anna Cora Mowatt at Portraits of American Women Writers
• Anna Cora Mowatt at Perspectives in American Literarture
• The Lady Actress: The life and career of Anna Cora Mowatt by Kelly S. Taylor: an up-to-date summary by a Mowatt scholar, including a historical timeline for context and a digital bibliography of online Mowatt resources
• Anna Cora Mowatt in 19th-Century Literary Criticism.
• Anna Cora Mowatt in The Literati of New York by Edgar Allan Poe