To enrol the names of those American women who since the days of Anne Bradstreet have expressed their thoughts and emotions in poetry, would be a task far exceeding the limits of this volume. Confining ourselves to the most noteworthy, we mention first the sisters Alice and Phœbe Cary. Among their many splendid poems and novels “Hualco, a Romance of the Golden Age of Tezcuco,” is founded upon adventures of a young Mexican chief, as related by several Spanish historians of the time of the conquest. Of Alice Cary exist several hymns, one of which is almost a classic in the purity of its sentiment.
The poetic spirit of Julia Ward Howe found expression in “Passion Flowers” (1854) and “Lyrics” (1866). Her most memorable poem is the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which breathes fervent patriotism and gives expression to the deep moral purpose of the Civil War.
The poetry of Helen Jackson unquestionably takes rank above that of any American woman. Emerson rated it above that of almost all American men. Her works include simple poetry of domestic life as well as love-poems of extraordinary intensity and imaginative fullness, furthermore, verses showing most intimate sympathy with external nature; and lastly, a few poems of the highest dignity and melody in the nature of odes, such as “A Christmas Symphony” and “A Funeral March.”
The numerous lyrics of Elizabeth Oakes Smith, E. O. Kinney, Frances S. Osgood, Anne L. Botta, Sarah Helen Whitman, Maria Lowell, Harriet W. Sewall, Emily Judson and many other women poets of the last half century show a development corresponding to that traceable in the field of American fiction.
In recent times a large number of gifted women have contributed to the general chorus new notes of unusual strength and beauty. Many names deserve a place upon the honor roll; among them Margaret J. Preston, Elizabeth Allen, Julia Dorr, Mary E. Bradley, Nora Perry, Mary C. Hudson, Margaret Sangster, Charlotte Bates, May Riley Smith, Edna Dean Proctor, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Alice Wellington Rollins, Edith Thomas, Emma Lazarus, Kate Osgood, and Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
In other branches of literature, to which comparatively few women have chosen to devote themselves, as for instance in history, several American women have shown remarkable talent and thoroughness.
First among these historians stands Mrs. Mercy Otis Warren, the same who with Mrs. Abigail Smith Adams, the wife of President John Adams, shared the belief that the Declaration of Independence should consider not the freedom of man alone, but that of woman also. Having warmly entered the contest between England and America, Mrs. Warren had corresponded with many of the leading men of the time; these often consulted her, and acknowledged the soundness of her judgment on many of the important events before and after the war. The most valuable of her writings appeared in 1805, under the title “The History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution, interspersed with Biographical, Political, and Moral Observations.” The three volumes of this work, dedicated to George Washington, are valuable as a true record of the events and feelings of those great times.
To Martha Lamb the citizens of the metropolis on the Hudson River are indebted for a comprehensive “History of New York City.” Agnes Laut penned a series of articles about the discovery of the farthest Northwest. Ellen Mackay Hutchinson compiled with Edmund Clarence Stedman “A Library of American Literature,” which in 1888 appeared in ten volumes; it shows excellent judgment, knowledge and care. Ida Tarbell produced among many other works a “Life of Abraham Lincoln” and an exceedingly interesting “History of the Standard Oil Company.” Katherine Coman published the “Industrial History of the United States.”
“A Century of Dishonor” is the title of a sensational book, written by Helen Hunt Jackson, and published in 1881. During her extensive travels in the Far West the author became deeply interested in the much maltreated Indians. Disgusted by the shameless robberies and lawless acts committed by many Indian Agents on the reservations, Mrs. Jackson wrote her book, which is one of the strongest indictments ever directed against the Government. Through this volume she succeeded in doing much to ameliorate the unfortunate conditions of the Red Race.
Mrs. John A. Logan compiled a valuable volume, entitled “The Part taken by Women in American History.”