Harriet Spofford was a notable American writer remembered for her novels, poems and detective stories.
Born in Calais, Maine, she moved with her parents to Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1849. She attended the Putnam Free School in Newburyport, and Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire from 1853 to 1855. When her parents became sick, of necessity she set to work as a writer, sometimes laboring fifteen hours a day. Spofford's gothic romances were set apart by luxuriant descriptions, and an unconventional handling of female stereotypes of the day.
In 1859, she submitted to Atlantic Monthly a story about Parisian life entitled "In a Cellar." The magazine's editor, James Russell Lowell, at first believed the story to be a translation, and withheld it from publication. Reassured that it was original, he published it, and it established her reputation. She became a welcome contributor to periodicals. In 1865, she married Richard S. Spofford, a Boston lawyer, and they resided on Deer Island overlooking the Merrimack River at Amesbury, where she died.
When Thomas Wentworth Higginson asked Emily Dickinson whether she had read Spofford's work "Circumstance," Dickinson replied, "I read Miss Prescott's "Circumstance", but it followed me in the dark, so I avoided her." (Atlantic Monthly, October 1891).
After returning to New England from Oregon with her family, Harriet Spofford (née Prescott, 1835–1921) began writing short stories to augment her father's meager income from running a boarding house. Her first break was a publication in the venerable Atlantic Monthly magazine and she remained a prolific and frequently published author of Gothic tales throughout her life. After marrying Richard Spofford Jr. the couple moved to a house on Deer Island, between Newburyport and Amesbury. Deer Island can be reached via the Chain Bridge on Main Street, originally constructed in 1792 and restored in 1810. It's one of the oldest suspension bridges in the country and the Spofford House still stands at its foot, although it is now a private residence and not open to the public. Spofford and many family members are buried in the large and well-maintained Oak Hill Cemetery at State and Parker Streets. Access is from an entry drive on State Street across from Greenleaf Street.
Born in Calais, Maine, she moved with her parents to Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1849. She attended the Putnam Free School in Newburyport, and Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire from 1853 to 1855. When her parents became sick, of necessity she set to work as a writer, sometimes laboring fifteen hours a day. Spofford's gothic romances were set apart by luxuriant descriptions, and an unconventional handling of female stereotypes of the day.
In 1859, she submitted to Atlantic Monthly a story about Parisian life entitled "In a Cellar." The magazine's editor, James Russell Lowell, at first believed the story to be a translation, and withheld it from publication. Reassured that it was original, he published it, and it established her reputation. She became a welcome contributor to periodicals. In 1865, she married Richard S. Spofford, a Boston lawyer, and they resided on Deer Island overlooking the Merrimack River at Amesbury, where she died.
When Thomas Wentworth Higginson asked Emily Dickinson whether she had read Spofford's work "Circumstance," Dickinson replied, "I read Miss Prescott's "Circumstance", but it followed me in the dark, so I avoided her." (Atlantic Monthly, October 1891).
After returning to New England from Oregon with her family, Harriet Spofford (née Prescott, 1835–1921) began writing short stories to augment her father's meager income from running a boarding house. Her first break was a publication in the venerable Atlantic Monthly magazine and she remained a prolific and frequently published author of Gothic tales throughout her life. After marrying Richard Spofford Jr. the couple moved to a house on Deer Island, between Newburyport and Amesbury. Deer Island can be reached via the Chain Bridge on Main Street, originally constructed in 1792 and restored in 1810. It's one of the oldest suspension bridges in the country and the Spofford House still stands at its foot, although it is now a private residence and not open to the public. Spofford and many family members are buried in the large and well-maintained Oak Hill Cemetery at State and Parker Streets. Access is from an entry drive on State Street across from Greenleaf Street.
Harriet Spofford was a notable American writer remembered for her novels, poems and detective stories.
Born in Calais, Maine, she moved with her parents to Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1849. She attended the Putnam Free School in Newburyport, and Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire from 1853 to 1855. When her parents became sick, of necessity she set to work as a writer, sometimes laboring fifteen hours a day. Spofford's gothic romances were set apart by luxuriant descriptions, and an unconventional handling of female stereotypes of the day.
In 1859, she submitted to Atlantic Monthly a story about Parisian life entitled "In a Cellar." The magazine's editor, James Russell Lowell, at first believed the story to be a translation, and withheld it from publication. Reassured that it was original, he published it, and it established her reputation. She became a welcome contributor to periodicals. In 1865, she married Richard S. Spofford, a Boston lawyer, and they resided on Deer Island overlooking the Merrimack River at Amesbury, where she died.
When Thomas Wentworth Higginson asked Emily Dickinson whether she had read Spofford's work "Circumstance," Dickinson replied, "I read Miss Prescott's "Circumstance", but it followed me in the dark, so I avoided her." (Atlantic Monthly, October 1891).
After returning to New England from Oregon with her family, Harriet Spofford (née Prescott, 1835–1921) began writing short stories to augment her father's meager income from running a boarding house. Her first break was a publication in the venerable Atlantic Monthly magazine and she remained a prolific and frequently published author of Gothic tales throughout her life. After marrying Richard Spofford Jr. the couple moved to a house on Deer Island, between Newburyport and Amesbury. Deer Island can be reached via the Chain Bridge on Main Street, originally constructed in 1792 and restored in 1810. It's one of the oldest suspension bridges in the country and the Spofford House still stands at its foot, although it is now a private residence and not open to the public. Spofford and many family members are buried in the large and well-maintained Oak Hill Cemetery at State and Parker Streets. Access is from an entry drive on State Street across from Greenleaf Street.
Born in Calais, Maine, she moved with her parents to Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1849. She attended the Putnam Free School in Newburyport, and Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire from 1853 to 1855. When her parents became sick, of necessity she set to work as a writer, sometimes laboring fifteen hours a day. Spofford's gothic romances were set apart by luxuriant descriptions, and an unconventional handling of female stereotypes of the day.
In 1859, she submitted to Atlantic Monthly a story about Parisian life entitled "In a Cellar." The magazine's editor, James Russell Lowell, at first believed the story to be a translation, and withheld it from publication. Reassured that it was original, he published it, and it established her reputation. She became a welcome contributor to periodicals. In 1865, she married Richard S. Spofford, a Boston lawyer, and they resided on Deer Island overlooking the Merrimack River at Amesbury, where she died.
When Thomas Wentworth Higginson asked Emily Dickinson whether she had read Spofford's work "Circumstance," Dickinson replied, "I read Miss Prescott's "Circumstance", but it followed me in the dark, so I avoided her." (Atlantic Monthly, October 1891).
After returning to New England from Oregon with her family, Harriet Spofford (née Prescott, 1835–1921) began writing short stories to augment her father's meager income from running a boarding house. Her first break was a publication in the venerable Atlantic Monthly magazine and she remained a prolific and frequently published author of Gothic tales throughout her life. After marrying Richard Spofford Jr. the couple moved to a house on Deer Island, between Newburyport and Amesbury. Deer Island can be reached via the Chain Bridge on Main Street, originally constructed in 1792 and restored in 1810. It's one of the oldest suspension bridges in the country and the Spofford House still stands at its foot, although it is now a private residence and not open to the public. Spofford and many family members are buried in the large and well-maintained Oak Hill Cemetery at State and Parker Streets. Access is from an entry drive on State Street across from Greenleaf Street.
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