• Source: Elizabeth Willisson Stephen

Elizabeth Willisson Stephen (March 21, 1856 – December 19, 1925) was an American author. Since 1878, she contributed prose and poetry to the northern and southern press. Her poem, "Mine", published in the Gulf Citizen, was characterized as classic in its treatment. With her mother, she was the co-author of The Confessions of Two, a novel.




Early life


Elizabeth Octavia Willisson was born in Marengo County, Alabama, near Mobile, Alabama, March 21, 1856. Her parents were Edward Fisher Willisson (1819–1858) and Marianne Gendron Gaillard Spratley (1834–1912). Her paternal ancestry was English, and some of them were noted figures of the American Revolutionary War period. Her mother's family was of Huguenot descent, and the name of Marion was conspicuous on their family tree. Thomas Gaillard, her maternal grandfather, ranked high as an ecclesiastical historian. Her grandmother, Mrs. Willisson, was an intellectual woman, who fostered the little girl's love for books and cultivated her intellect. Elizabeth grew up in the world of books, writing stories and verses.




Career


Before marriage, and with her mother, Elizabeth co-authored the novel, The Confessions of Two.
Stephen's writing opportunities widened after her marriage in 1888. Beside the novel, she wrote much, both in prose and verse, for various newspapers and periodicals. She composed a poem in honor of the ceremony to commemorate Macon, Missouri's "Red Letter Day", when the corner stone of Blees Military Academy was laid.




Personal life


In 1888, she married William Oscar Stephen (1855–1928), a Presbyterian clergyman. They had two children, Walter Willisson Stephen (1890–1958) and William Oscar Stephen (1893–1973). She took an active interest in her husband's work and in all religious progress.
For a time, her home was in Rockport, Indiana, and then Macon, Missouri. She left Macon in August 1899 for Peeksville, Wisconsin and other points in northern Wisconsin, on account of ill health. She returned to Macon later in the year before leaving again, this time for Virginia, in December 1899, because of frail health.
Stephen was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.




Selected works






= Novels

=
Confessions of Two: A Novel, by Marianne Gaillard Spratley & Elizabeth Octavia Willisson (1886)




= Poetry

=
"The Call of the Hills"
"Divided"
"John Hall"
"Mine"
"Recuerdo. To Augusta Evans Wilson."
"The Revolution's Dawn"




References






= Attribution

=
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Avery, Mrs. Elroy M., ed. (1901). "The Revolution's Dawn, By Elizabeth Willisson Stephen". The American Monthly Magazine. 19. National Society.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Daughters of the American Revolution (1912). Lineage Book - National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Vol. 36 (Public domain ed.). Daughters of the American Revolution.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Herald and Presbyter, ed. (1908). "The Call of the Hills, by Elizabeth Willisson Stephen". Herald and Presbyter. LXXIX (2). Cincinnati, Ohio: Monfort & Company.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Herringshaw, Thomas William (1914). Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography: Richards-Zwemmer (Public domain ed.). American Publishers' Association.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: New York Observer, ed. (1898). "New York". New-York Observer. 76. Morse, Hallock & Company.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). "Elizabeth Willisson Stephen". A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Charles Wells Moulton.




External links


Works related to Woman of the Century/Elizabeth Willisson Stephen at Wikisource

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Elizabeth Willisson Stephen
• List of poets from the United States
• List of people from Alabama
• Elizabeth (given name)
• Daughters of the American Revolution
• Stephen (surname)
• List of women writers (M–Z)