Andover Author - Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps was born in 1844 and was educated at Abbot Academy. Her birth name was Mary Gray, but, after her mother died when Mary was eight, she took her mother's name, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. She published her first piece of work at age 18, and her first book, The Gates Ajar, in 1869, when she was 24. It proved to be a 19th century bestseller. She went on to author 57 books. Ms. Phelps also wrote for the Atlantic Monthly.

She wrote "The Tenth of January" for the March 1968 issue of Atlantic Monthly. In it she described the conditions that lead to the collapse of the Pemberton Mill in Lawrence on January 10, 1860.

She also challenged the prevailing idea that women were meant to lead a life of domestic pursuits. She championed a woman's right to keep her maiden name after marriage, believed that women could be financially independent, and challenged the need to wear a corset. At 44 she married Herbert Dickinson Ward, a man 17 years younger. She died in 1911 and is buried in Newton MA.

Partial Bibliography

• The Gates Ajar 1868 (A novel that presented a comforting view of the afterlife for Civil War widows.)
• Hedged In 1870
• The Silent Partner 1871
• The Story of Avis 1877
• Sealed Orders 1879 Short stories many of them reprinted from Harper's Monthly.
• Beyond the Gates 1883
• Old Maids and Burglars in Paradise 1885
• The Madonna of the Tubs 1886
• Austin Phelps: A Memoir 1891 The biography of her father, a professor at Andover Theological Seminary
• Donald Marcy 1893
• Chapters from Life 1896 Her autobiography
• A Singular Life 1897
• Men, Women, and Ghosts 1899
• Walled In 1907

See

• Andover Stories: "Before Bra-Burning Feminists, There Was Andover Author Elizabeth Stuart Phelps" by Jennifer Tarbox. Andover Townsman 7/8/2010
• Articles from the Atlantic Monthly by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps in the Andover Authors Collection in the Andover Room.
• Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Readseries.com. January 3, 2012.
• Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward. Readseries.com. January 13, 2012.
• The Literary Fate of the Woman Artist: Elizabeth Stuart Phelps's The Story of Avis

--Eleanor 15:46, March 13, 2012 (EDT)

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