│PARA ½PAR@ ` #TEXT ` Sedgwick, Catharine Maria1789╨1867writerBorn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, on December 28, 1789, Catharine Sedgwick was a daughter of Theodore Sedgwick, lawyer, congressman, and later senator and judge of the state supreme court. She attended district schools and boarding schools in Albany and Boston, all for brief periods, and read widely in her father╒s library. From the time of her mother╒s death in 1807 and her father╒s remarriage the next year she spent much time with brothers and sisters in Albany and New York City. At the urging of her brother Theodore she undertook to write a tract on the bigotry of orthodox Calvinism╤she had herself become a Unitarian and a devoted follower of William Ellery Channing╤and by the time of its anonymous publication in 1822 the tract had evolved into a novel, A New-England Tale, which enjoyed considerable success. It was remarkable in its lively and accurate portrayal of the scenes and characters of her native Berkshire Hills. She followed with Redwood, 1824, Hope Leslie, 1827, Clarence, 1830, and The Linwoods, 1835, establishing a firm reputation as a novelist and contributing significantly to the development of a native literature. For two decades thereafter Sedgwick╒s literary work consisted of stories and tracts on various moral topics that were published in periodicals and gift books and such volumes as Home, 1835, The Poor Rich Man, and the Rich Poor Man, 1836, Live and Let Live; or Domestic Service Illustrated, 1837, Means and Ends; or Self-Training, 1839, Letters from Abroad to Kindred at Home, 1841, Wilton Harvey, a collection of stories, 1845, Morals of Manners, 1846, Facts and Fancies for School-Day Reading, 1848, Married or Single?, her last novel, 1857, and Memoir of John Curtis, a Model Man, 1858. For decades she divided her time between Stockbridge and later Lenox, Massachusetts, where her summer home was a gathering place for visiting American and foreign notables, and New York City. Virtually her only venture into public affairs was her participation in the work of the Women╒s Prison Association of New York, of which she was ╥first director╙ from its incorporation in 1854 until her death (when she was succeeded by Sarah Platt Doremus). She died in West Roxbury (now part of Boston), Massachusetts, on July 31, 1867. Vstyl ` * ! ¬ 5¬ $ 5¬ , !I 0 !I B !I ∩ !I ÷ !I ■ !I !I !I !I % !I 1 !I ▓ 5¬ │ !I e !I i !I q !I Ö !I í !I ╙ !I █ !I √ !I !I
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