Mary Tappan Wright

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Mary Tappan Wright
Born	December 14, 1851 Steubenville, Ohio
Died	August 28, 1917 Cambridge, Massachusetts
Occupation	novelist, short story writer
Nationality	United States
Writing period	1890 - 1912
Notable work(s)	Aliens (1902)

Mary Tappan Wright (1851-1917) was an American novelist and short story writer best known for her acute characterizations and depictions of academic life. She was the wife of classical scholar John Henry Wright and the mother of legal scholar and utopian novelist Austin Tappan Wright and geographer John Kirtland Wright.

Contents 1 Life and family 2 Career 2.1 Works 2.2 Critical reception 2.3 Papers 3 Bibliography 3.1 Novels 3.2 Collections 3.3 Short stories 3.4 Reviews 4 Footnotes 5 General references 6 External links

[edit] Life and family

Wright was born Mary Tappan December 14, 1851, in Steubenville, Ohio,^[1][2], or December 18 of the same year,^[3] the daughter of Eli Todd Tappan, president of Kenyon College, and Lydia (McDowell) Tappan. She was educated at Auburn Young Ladies' Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio.^[4] She married, April 2, 1878, John Henry Wright, then an associate professor of Greek at Dartmouth College and later professor of classical philology and dean of the Collegiate Board of Johns Hopkins University, professor of Greek at Harvard University, and dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The couple had three children, Elizabeth Tappan Wright (who died young), Austin Tappan Wright, and John Kirtland Wright. They lived successively in Hanover, New Hampshire, Baltimore, Maryland and Cambridge, Massachusetts, aside from one period during which John was a professor at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, when they resided in Greece.^[5] Wright’s husband died November 25, 1908, and she herself died August 28, 1917 in Cambridge.^[6] She was survived by her two sons.

[edit] Career

[edit] Works

Wright and her husband are said to have "worked together on their literary activities."^[7] Wright's first published story was "As Haggards of the Rock" (May 1890); it and other early stories ("A Truce," "A Portion of the Tempest," "From Macedonia," "Deep as First Love," and "A Fragment of a Play, With a Chorus") were collected in her first book, A Truce, and Other Stories (1895). None of her subsequent short stories were gathered into book form in her lifetime.

Much of her fiction dealt with American university life, often set in the fictional college town she called Dulwich in her short stories and Great Dulwich in her novels, which combines elements of both Kenyon College and Harvard University. Her first, third and fourth novels shared this subject, and the latter two the Great Dulwich setting (the first mentions it peripherally). Wright's earliest novel, Aliens (1902), attracted much attention when it appeared for its portrait of contemporary northerners in a racially tense Southern college town. The Tower (1906) was described as "a love story placed against the life of a college community taken from the faculty side and told with deep understanding and the most delicate art"^[8] and The Charioteers (1912) as "a story of the social life and environment of college professors and their families."^[9]

Wright’s second novel, The Test (1904), the story of a wronged young woman, was something of a departure, and received mixed reviews for what some perceived as its unpleasant subject matter and unsympathetic characters, though it was generally praised as well-written.^[10][11][12]

Wright’s first four books were published by Charles Scribner's Sons, the fifth being issued by D. Appleton & Company. Close to half of her short pieces appeared in Scribner's Magazine; others appeared in Christian Union, The Youth's Companion, The Outlook, The Independent, Harper's Magazine, Harper's Weekly, and an anthology of works by various authors. She also contributed a book review to the North American Review.

Wright was a founding member of the Boston Authors Club in 1900.^[13]

Aliens was reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, LLC, in June, 2007. Wright's previously uncollected short stories are currently (2008) being issued in new collections by Fleabonnet Press.

[edit] Critical reception

In her writing Wright was praised as having "a keen sense of humor, good descriptive powers, a good working knowledge of human nature, an effective style" and the ability to "tell a story well."^[14] Her skill at characterization was also noted.^[15]

[edit] Papers

Wright’s papers, including correspondence and original manuscripts and fragments, are found in various archival collections at the Harvard University Library and the Houghton Library at Harvard College. An early commonplace book from 1870-77, containing mostly poetry, is in the Stone-Wright family papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Novels

• Aliens (1902) (Google e-text)
• The Test (1904)
• The Tower (1906) (Google e-text)
• The Charioteers (1912)

[edit] Collections

• A Truce, and Other Stories (1895)
• Pro Tempore, and Other Stories (2007) (e-text)
• Dead Letters, and Other Pieces (2008) (e-text)

[edit] Short stories

• "As Haggards of the Rock" (May 1890) (e-text of original magazine publication on Making of America)
• "Beginning Alone" (Sep.-Oct. 1890)
• "A Truce" (Jan. 1891) (e-text of original magazine publication on Making of America)
• "A Fragment of a Play, With a Chorus" (May 1891) (e-text of original magazine publication on Making of America)
• "Divided Allegiances" (Feb. 1892)
• "A Lad—Dismissed" (Jul.-Aug. 1893)
• "The Gray Fur Rug" (Nov. 1893)
• "Deep as First Love" (Feb. 1894) (e-text of original magazine publication on Making of America)
• "A Portion of the Tempest" (Jun. 1894) (e-text of original magazine publication on Making of America)
• "His Last" (Jun. 1894; reprinted as "His Last Offence, A Story of College Life", ca. 1905)
• "From Macedonia" (Oct. 1894) (e-text of original magazine publication on Making of America)
• "Three Fires at Redmont" (Jun. 1895)
• "Cunliffe" (Sep. 1896) (e-text)
• "The Key of the Fields" (Feb. 1898) (e-text of original magazine publication on Making of America) (another e-text)
• "An Exception" (Jan. 1899) (e-text)
• "The Best Laid Plans" (ca.1901)
• "A Day Together" (Jan. 1901) (e-text)
• "Dead Letters" (Sep. 1901) (e-text)
• "A Sacred Concert" (Jul. 1903) (e-text)
• "Vox" (Oct. 1903) (e-text)
• "Pro Tempore" (Jun. 1906) (e-text)
• "The Mountain" (Feb. 1907) (e-text)
• "Asphodel" (Oct. 1909) (e-text)

[edit] Reviews

• "The Iron Woman" (review of the novel by Margaret Deland) (Dec. 1911) (e-text)

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^ Leonard, John William, ed. Woman's Who's Who of America, 1914-1915, New York, The American Commonwealth Company, c1914, p. 907.
2. ^ Motter, H. L., ed. The International Who's Who; Who's Wo in the World, 1912, New York, The International Who's Who Publishing Company, c1911, p. 1121
3. ^ Lexikon der Frau in zwei Bünden. Band II, I-Z. Zürich, Encyclios Verlag 1954, p. 1662.
4. ^ Motter, H. L., ed. The International Who's Who; Who's Wo in the World, 1912, New York, The International Who's Who Publishing Company, c1911, p. 1121
5. ^ "Among the Authors" – article, New York Times, July 14, 1912, p. BR412.
6. ^ Lexikon der Frau in zwei Bünden. Band II, I-Z. Zürich, Encyclios Verlag 1954, p. 1662. Other sources do not provide a date, and give the year of her death as 1916.
7. ^ Flagg, Mildred Buchanan. Boston Authors Now and Then; More Members of the Boston Authors Club, 1900-1966. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dresser, Chapman & Grimes, 1966, p. 255.
8. ^ "Scribner Spring Books" – display advertisement, New York Times, April 7, 1906, p. BR207.
9. ^ "Among the Authors" – article, New York Times, July 14, 1912, p. BR412.
10. ^ "A Study of Conscience" – review, New York Times, April 30, 1904, p. BR296.
11. ^ "Some February Books" – article, New York Times, January 30, 1904, p. BR66.
12. ^ Peattie, Elia W. "More Plays by Mr. Yeats" – review of these and other works, Chicago Daily Tribune, April 2, 1904, p. 13.
13. ^ Flagg, Mildred Buchanan. Boston Authors Now and Then; More Members of the Boston Authors Club, 1900-1966. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dresser, Chapman & Grimes, 1966, p. 255.
14. ^ "A Study of Conscience" – review, New York Times, April 30, 1904, p. BR296.
15. ^ The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge. New York, The Encyclopedia American Corporation, 1920, p. 570.

[edit] General references

• American Authors and Books. 1640 to the present day. Third revised edition. By W.J. Burke and Will D. Howe. Revised by Irving Weiss and Anne Weiss. New York: Crown Publishers, 1972.
• Adams, Oscar Fay A Dictionary of American Authors. Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1897.
• Coyle, William, ed. Ohio Authors and Their Books. Biographical data and selective bibliographies for Ohio authors, native and resident, 1796-1950. Cleveland: World Publishing Co., 1962.
• The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge. New York: Encyclopedia Americana Corporation, 1920, p. 570.
• Herringshaw, Thomas William, ed. Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography. Chicago, Ill., American Publishers' Association, 1914, p. 784.
• Leonard, John William, ed. Woman's Who's Who of America. A biographical dictionary of contemporary women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. Edited by John William Leonard. New York: American Commonwealth Co., 1914, p. 907.
• Lexikon der Frau in zwei Bünden. Band II, I-Z. Zürich, Encyclios Verlag 1954, p. 1662.
• Motter, H. L., ed. The International Who's Who; Who's Wo in the World, 1912, New York, The International Who's Who Publishing Company, c1911, p. 1121.
• Wallace, W. Stewart. A Dictionary of North American Authors Deceased before 1950. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1951.
• Warner, Charles Dudley, ed. Biographical Dictionary and Synopsis of Books Ancient and Modern. Akron, OH: Werner Co., 1902.
• Who Was Who in America. Volume 1, 1897-1942. Chicago: A. N. Marquis Company, 1943.
• Who's Who in America, a Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of the United States, 1903-1905. Chicago: A. N. Marquis & Company, 1903, p. 1658.
• Who's Who in New England . 2nd ed. Chicago : A. N. Marquis & Company, 1916. p. 1186.

[edit] External links

• Wright, Mary Tappan, 1851-1916. Correspondence and compositions: Guide to papers at the Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
• The Works of Mary Tappan Wright Online
• Wright's entry on Frank Parlato Jr.'s Swami Vivekananda site