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Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS WARD (1844-1911), American author and philanthropist, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on the 31st of August 1844. She was the granddaughter of the Rev. Moses Stuart, and the daughter of the Rev. Austin Phelps (1820-1890) who became a professor in the Andover Theological Seminary in 1848, and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1815-1852), who wrote. Sunnyside (1851), a popular book in its day, and other works. In 1848 she removed with her parents to Andover, where she attended private schools. When she was in her teens she wrote short stories for the Youth's Companion, The Atlantic Monthly and Harper's Magazine. She wrote many juveniles', especially Sunday-School, books, such as the Tiny and the Gypsy series. In 1868 appeared in The Atlantic Monthly her short story, The Tenth of January, a narrative of the falling and burning of a cotton-mill at Lawrence, Mass., in 1860. In the same year appeared The Gates Ajar (1868), her first novel, a realistic study of life after death, which was widely read and was translated into several European languages. Her Beyond the Gates (1883), The Gates Between (1887) and Within the Gates (Igor) are in the same vein. She was actively interested in charitable work, in the advancement of women and in temperance reform. In 1888 she married Herbert Dickinson Ward (b. 1861), son of the Rev. William Hayes Ward.

Among Mrs Ward's books, in addition to those already mentioned, are: Men, Women and Ghosts (1869); The Trotty Book (1869), juvenile; Hedged in (1870); The Silent Partner (1871); Trotty's Wedding Tour and Story Book (1873), juvenile; What to Wear (1873), essays; Poetic Studies (1875), poems; The Story of Avis (1877), Sealed Orders, and Other Stories (1879); Friends: a Duet 0880; Doctor Zay (1882); Songs of the Silent World, and Other Poems (1884); Old Maids, and Burglars in Paradise (1885); The Madonna of the Tubs (1886), a short story; Jack the Fisherman (1887), a Gloucester tragedy; The Struggle for Immortality (1889), essays; Fourteen to One, and Other Stories (1891); Austin Phelps: a Memoir (1891); Donald Marcy (1893); A Singular Life (1894), one of her best-known novels; The Supply at Saint Agatha's (1896); Chapters from a Life (1896); The Story of Jesus Christ: an Interpretation (1897); The Successors of Mary the First (1901); Avery (1902), first issued serially in Harper's Magazine as His Wi f e; Trixy (1904); The Man in the Case (1906); Walled In (1907); and Though Life Do Us Part (1908). In collaboration with her husband, she wrote two novels founded on Biblical scenes and characters, The Master of the Magicians (1890), and Come Forth (1890). Among Mr Ward's books are The New Senior at Andover (1890)

The Republic without a President, and Other Short Stories (1891); The Captain of the Kittiwink (1892); A Dash to the Pole (1893); The White Crown, and Other Stories (1894); The Burglar who moved Paradise (1897); and The Light of the World (1901).