Lydia Jane Wheeler Peirson

Lydia Jane Wheeler Peirson (1802–1862; sometimes spelled Pierson) was an American poet, nicknamed "the forest minstrel".[1]

"Like a great majority of women, she had too little knowledge of business to enable her to realize the pecuniary recompense that was due her labors. She has been, for a long time, a contributor to papers that have a wide circulation, yet has seldom received more than the paper and an occasional volume sent the editor for review, as compensation.— The proceeds of one volume of her poems, she donated to a theological seminary; for the other she received nothing. The publishers found rapid sale for the work, but soon after its issue were burnt out, and a great share of the edition destroyed. They maintained that they had received only enough to compensate them for their expense, and gave her nothing."[2]

Early years

Born in Middletown, Connecticut, she was the daughter to William Wheeler. She developed an aptitude for literary works at an early age, writing and singing verses before age 12. These first songs were about God and nature. She memorized entire books, including The Shipwreck, The Lady of the Lake, Lalla-Rookh, The Bride of Abydos, and The Corsair.[3] At the age of 16, she moved with her parents to Canandaigua, New York and married Oliver Peirson two years later.

Career

With her husband, Peirson moved to the western portion of Liberty Township, Tioga County, Pennsylvania in 1821.[4] Suffering from loneliness and seclusion at their rural home in the woods of the Allegheny Mountains,[5] she began to write. For many years, her children were financially dependent on her efforts. She was a prolific author, chiefly for magazines and newspapers, her published poems filling more than a thousand common octavo pages. Though Peirson wrote more prose than poems, her prose papers were not collected. Her writings were often about nature. Peirson published two volumes of poems: "Forest Leaves," in 1846 and " The Forest Minstrel," in 1847. In 1849, she edited the Lancaster Literary Gazette; she was also the chief writer for the Ladies' Garland, a periodical for women which flourished in the 1840s.[6] She contributed prose and verse to the Southern Literary Magazine and The New Real.[7] In 1853, Peirson settled in Adrian, Michigan where she died in 1862.[8]

References
  1. Small, Judy Jo (1 May 2010). Positive As Sound: Emily Dickinson's Rhyme. University of Georgia Press. pp. 34–. ISBN 978-0-8203-3464-6.
  2. M. B. Bateham & S. D. Harris, ed. (1855). THE OHIO CULTIVATOR: A SEMI-MONTHLY JOURNAL, DEVOTED TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE, AND THE PROMOTION OF DOMESTIC INDUSTRY: ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGLAVING OF FARM BUILDINGS, IMPLEMENTS, DOMESTIC ANIMALS, Erc. XI (Public domain ed.). pp. 46–.
  3. Hale, Sarah Josepha Buell (1855). Woman's Record, Or, Sketches of All Distinguished Women: From the Creation to A.D. 1854 : Arranged in Four Eras : with Selections from Female Writers of Every Age (Public domain ed.). Harper & Bros. pp. 769–.
  4. Sexton, John L. (1885). An Outline History of Tioga and Bradford Counties in Pennsylvania, Chemung, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins and Schuyler in New York: By Townships, Villages, Boro's and Cities (Public domain ed.). Gazette Company. pp. 39–.
  5. Peirson, Lydia Jane; Schneck, Benjamin Shroder (1846). The forest minstrel [verse] ed. by B.S. Schneck (Public domain ed.). pp. vii–.
  6. Mott, Frank Luther (January 1930). A History of American Magazines: 1741-1850. Harvard University Press. pp. 672–. ISBN 978-0-674-39550-3.
  7. Hart, John Seely (1872). A Manual of American Literature: A Text-book for Schools and Colleges (Public domain ed.). Eldredge & Brother. pp. 210–.
  8. Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John (1888). Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography (Public domain ed.). D. Appleton. pp. 703–.

Bibliography
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: S. J. B. Hale's " Woman's Record, Or, Sketches of All Distinguished Women: From the Creation to A.D. 1854 : Arranged in Four Eras : with Selections from Female Writers of Every Age" (1855)
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: M. B. Bateham & S. D. Harris's "THE OHIO CULTIVATOR: A SEMI-MONTHLY JOURNAL, DEVOTED TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE, AND THE PROMOTION OF DOMESTIC INDUSTRY: ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGLAVING OF FARM BUILDINGS, IMPLEMENTS, DOMESTIC ANIMALS, Erc." (1855)
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: J. L. Sexton's " An Outline History of Tioga and Bradford Counties in Pennsylvania, Chemung, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins and Schuyler in New York: By Townships, Villages, Boro's and Cities" (1885)
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: L. J. Peirson's & B. S. Schneck's " The forest minstrel [verse] ed. by B.S. Schneck" (1846)
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: J. S. Hart's "A Manual of American Literature: A Text-book for Schools and Colleges" (1872)
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: J. G. Wilson's & J. Fiske's " Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography" (1888)
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