|
Maria White Lowell (July 8, 1821 – October 27, 1853) was an American poet and abolitionist. ==Life and career== Maria was born in Watertown, Massachusetts to a middle-class intellectual family. She was raised under a strict ascetic discipline at an Ursuline Convent which was later burned by a mob in 1834.〔Walker, Cherly, editor. ''American Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century: An Anthology''. New Jersey: Rutgers Press, 1992: 186. ISBN 0-8135-1791-5〕 She became heavily involved in the temperance movement and was a supporter of women's rights. On November 6, 1839, she was one of the local women who attended the first "conversation" organized by women's rights advocate Margaret Fuller.〔Slater, Abby. ''In Search of Margaret Fuller''. New York: Delacorte Press, 1978: 43. ISBN 0-440-03944-4〕 The same year, Maria White's brother William introduced her to his Harvard College classmate, James Russell Lowell.〔Wagenknecht, Edward. ''James Russell Lowell: Portrait of a Many-Sided Man''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971: 135〕 The two became engaged in the autumn of 1840. However, her father Abijah White, a wealthy merchant, insisted that the wedding be postponed until Lowell had gainful employment.〔Sullivan, Wilson. ''New England Men of Letters''. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972: 210. ISBN 0-02-788680-8〕 Shortly after Lowell published ''Conversations on the Old Poets'', a collection of his previously published essays,〔Heymann, C. David. ''American Aristocracy: The Lives and Times of James Russell, Amy, and Robert Lowell''. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1980: 73. ISBN 0-396-07608-4〕 the couple married on December 26, 1844 at her father's house.〔Duberman, Martin. ''James Russell Lowell''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1966: 68.〕 The new husband believed she was made up "half of earth and more than of Heaven".〔 A friend described their relationship as "the very picture of a True Marriage".〔Sullivan, Wilson. ''New England Men of Letters''. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972: 211. ISBN 0-02-788680-8〕 White, who become involved in movements against intemperance and slavery, joined the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society and persuaded Lowell to become an abolitionist.〔Yellin, Jean Fagan. "Hawthorne and the Slavery Question", ''A Historical Guide to Nathaniel Hawthorne'', Larry J. Reynolds, ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001: 45. ISBN 0-19-512414-6〕 The new Mrs. Lowell, however, was in poor health and the couple moved to Philadelphia shortly after their marriage in the hopes she would be healed there.〔Wagenknecht, Edward. ''James Russell Lowell: Portrait of a Many-Sided Man''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971: 16〕 In the spring of 1845, the Lowells returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts to make their home at Elmwood in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They had four children, though only one survived past infancy. Their first, Blanche, was born December 31, 1845, but lived only fifteen months; Rose, born in 1849, survived only a few months as well; their only son, Walter, was born in 1850 but died in 1852.〔Sullivan, Wilson. ''New England Men of Letters''. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972: 213. ISBN 0-02-788680-8〕 Only their fourth child, Mabel, survived to adulthood. Frail, delicate, and plagued by ill health throughout her life, Maria White Lowell died on October 27, 1853,〔Duberman, Martin. ''James Russell Lowell''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1966: 134.〕 at the age of 32 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is buried with her husband in Mount Auburn Cemetery. A volume of her poems was printed privately after her death (Cambridge, 1855). The best known of them are “The Alpine Shepherd” and “The Morning-Glory.” 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Maria White Lowell」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|