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Home  »  Specimens of American Poetry  »  Sarah J. Hale (1788–1879)

Samuel Kettell, ed. Specimens of American Poetry. 1829.

By Critical and Biographical Notice

Sarah J. Hale (1788–1879)

MRS HALE was born at Newport, New Hampshire, October 24th, 1790. Her husband, David Hale, Esq. died in 1822. Her first work was published in 1823. It was a volume of poems selected mostly from articles written for amusement in years previous. The necessities of a fatherless family made her an author. The profits of her volume, however, were not such as to encourage her to pursue the vocation, and she contemplated no further enterprise of a literary character, but the failure of all her other attempts to support her family compelled her once more to appear before the public. In 1827, she published “Northwood,” a novel in two volumes, which was very favorably received. Since that period, she has contributed to many of the periodicals of the day, souvenirs, &c. both prose and verse, the latter under the signature of “Cornelia.” In January 1828, she undertook the editorship of the Ladies’ Magazine, published in Boston, where she now resides. It gives us pleasure to state, that her talents have been so well appreciated, that her efforts to provide for her children have thus far been crowned with success.