Anna Cabot Quincy Waterston (née, Quincy; pen names, A. C. Q. W. and W. A. C. Q.; June 27, 1812 – October 14, 1899) was a 19th-century American writer of poems, novels, hymns, and a diary.[1]
Anna Cabot Quincy Waterston | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy June 27, 1812 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | October 14, 1899 (aged 87) Newton, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Resting place | Mount Auburn Cemetery |
| Pen name |
|
| Occupation | Writer |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | poems, novels, hymns, diary |
| Spouse |
Robert C. Waterston
(m. 1840; died 1893) |
| Children | Helen Ruthven Waterston |
| Parents | Josiah Quincy III |
| Relatives |
|
Early life and family
editAnna Cabot Lowell Quincy was born June 27, 1812, in Boston, Massachusetts.[2] She was the youngest daughter of Josiah Quincy III, who served as president of Harvard University, U.S. Representative, and Mayor of Boston. Her mother was Eliza Susan Morton Quincy.[3] Anna's grandfather, Josiah Quincy II, had also served as mayor of Boston, as did her brother, Josiah. Her other siblings were: Eliza, Abigail, Maria, Margaret, and Edmund.[4]
On April 21, 1840, she married Rev. Robert C. Waterston (1812–93).[5] After passing two years in Europe, and, just as they were all about to return home, their daughter, Helen Ruthven Waterston (1841 - July 25, 1858), died at Naples, Italy.[6]
Career
editSome of Waterston's verses were printed in 1863, in a small volume.[3] She also published articles in The Atlantic Monthly.[7] Her pen names included, "A. C. Q. W.",[8][9] and "W. A. C. Q.".[10]
In 1870, after visiting Jeanne Carr, Waterston left Oakland, California, for Yosemite.[9] Waterston was able to gather around her a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. She knew well and was intimately associated with many of the most distinguished people of the former generation. When her father entertained Lafayette, she was a school girl, but the occasions made such an impression upon her mind that she retained a vivid remembrance of it in later years. The cause of the blind was important to her ever since the establishment of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind.[8]
Death and legacy
edit
Waterston died October 14, 1899,[2] at her home, No. 526 Massachusetts Avenue, in Newton, Massachusetts, where she lived since 1860, and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. Her carved marble bust was sculpted by Edmonia Lewis and is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.[11] In 2003, her diary, written at the age of seventeen, was posthumously published under the title A Woman's Wit and Whimsy.[7]
Selected works
edit- Quincy
- Sketchbook, ca. 1835
- Together, 1863
- Verses, 1863
- Edmonia Lewis. (The young colored woman who has successfully modelled the bust of Colonel Shaw.)., 1865
- Adelaide Phillipps: A Record. Boston: A. Williams and Company, 1883.
Posthumously published
edit- A Woman's Wit & Whimsy: The 1833 Diary of Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy, edited by Beverly Wilson Palmer. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2003.
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ Sankovitch 2017, p. 127.
- ^ a b Lord, Charles Edward (1913). The Ancestors and Descendants of Lieutenant Tobias Lord. Priv. print. [T. R. Marvin & son]. p. 121. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ a b Putnam 1875, p. 407.
- ^ The new england historical and genealogical register 1857, p. 73.
- ^ American Antiquarian Society 1893, p. 314.
- ^ Putnam 1875, p. 408.
- ^ a b Shannon 2014, p. 60.
- ^ a b Wilson & Fiske 1901, p. 289.
- ^ a b Yelverton (Viscountess Avonmore) 1991, p. xxv.
- ^ Cushing 1885, p. 297.
- ^ "Anna Quincy Waterston". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
Attribution
edit- This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: American Antiquarian Society (1893). Proceedings (Public domain ed.). American Antiquarian Society.
- This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Cushing, William (1885). Initials and Pseudonyms: A Dictionary of Literary Disguises (Public domain ed.). T. Y. Crowell & Company. p. 297.
- This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: The new england historical and genealogical register (1857). The new england historical and genealogical register. Vol. XI (Public domain ed.).
- This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Putnam, Alfred Porter (1875). Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith: Being Selections of Hymns and Other Sacred Poems of the Liberal Church in America, with Biographical Sketches of the Writers, and with Historical and Illustrative Notes (Public domain ed.). Roberts. p. 407.
- This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John (1901). Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography (Public domain ed.). D. Appleton. p. 289.
Bibliography
edit- Sankovitch, Nina (11 April 2017). The Lowells of Massachusetts: An American Family. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1-4668-7811-2.
- Shannon, Hope J. (2014). Legendary Locals of Boston's South End. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4671-0112-7.
- Yelverton (Viscountess Avonmore), Thérèse (1991). Zanita: A Tale of the Yo-semite. Ten Speed Press. ISBN 9780898154108.
- Beverly Wilson Palmer (ed.), A Woman's Wit & Whimsy: The 1833 Diary of Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy, Boston : Northeastern University Press, 2003.