Malaeska, The Indian Wife of the White Hunter: Classic Westerns
(• Two of American author Ann S. Stephens' books are in th...)
• Two of American author Ann S. Stephens' books are in this Kindle edition: Malaeska, The Indian Wife of the White Hunter & The Old Homestead
Malaeska, The Indian Wife of the White Hunter
An Indian woman marries a white settler in this tragic tale of star-crossed love and revenge.
The Old Homestead
The story of New England farm life, romance, fireside chats and family.
About The Author
American author Ann S. Stephens (1810–1886) edited a literary review called the Portland Magazine. She later joined the staff of a New York-based publication and became a celebrated writer before she died at age seventy-six.
(The brake hung low on the rifted rock
With sweet and holy...)
The brake hung low on the rifted rock
With sweet and holy dread,
The wild-flowers trembled to the shock
Of the red man's stealthy tread;
And all around fell a fitful gleam
Through the light and quivering spray.
While the noise of a restless mountain-stream
Rush'd out on the stilly day.
Ann Sophia Stephens was an American novelist and magazine editor. She was the author of dime novels and is credited as the progenitor of that genre.
Background
Ann was born on March 30, 1810 in the town of Derby, Connecticut, United States, the daughter of John and Ann Winterbotham. Her father emigrated from England to America in 1806 at the request of David Humphreys to act as manager of the woolen mills newly established in this region. There she spent her childhood.
Education
She learned to read, sew, and knit at a tender age in a dame's school and later received further training in South Britain. She listened to her father read aloud to his large family in the evenings and early tried her own hand at composition.
Career
Occasionally she attended plays written by Humphreys for the operatives in his factory and was strengthened in her determination to become an author. In 1834 she and her husband established a literary monthly in Portland, Maine, the Portland Magazine, especially directed to "the Ladies of Maine. " For the next two years she acted as editor of this paper, contributing to it a large part of the poems, sketches, literary notices, and romantic historical tales that made up its contents.
In 1842 Graham's Magazine announced her as one of its editors, promising that her "life-like and thrilling stories should appear in its columns. Brother Jonathan, a weekly newspaper published by her husband, the Lady's Wreath, and the Columbian Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine, all featured her work during the decade.
In 1843 she entered upon a connection with the magazine that later became Peterson's Magazine. This lasted until her death. She contributed to almost every number of the journal during the last twenty years of her life, and regularly supplied it with a new serial every January.
From 1850 to 1852 she traveled in Europe, meeting many distinguished persons and enjoying the courtesies they extended to her. After her return she undertook a magazine of her own, Mrs. Stephens' Illustrated New Monthly (1856 - 58).
Between 1854 and 1880 she published more than twenty-five books in addition to the serials, poems, and articles constantly appearing in periodicals. Of these the most popular were Fashion and Famine (1854) and The Old Homestead (1855). Her publishers declared that her works were always successful because of her skill in "heightening, coloring, and enlarging nature. "
In novels like The Rejected Wife (1863) and many earlier works she dealt freely with American history, supplying strange episodes in the careers of notable personages. English history attracted her even more, and she delighted to portray royal figures in the midst of purple velvet, oriental pearls, ivory caskets, and snowy plumes.
In 1860 she supplied Beadle & Company with the first of its famous "dime novel" series - Malaeska, an Indian tale, expanded from one of her early short stories. She contributed to this same series Ahmo's Plot (1863), The Indian Queen (1864), and other lively accounts of Western adventure. Stories from her pen continued to appear in Peterson's for several years after her death. Sir Walter Scott and Fenimore Cooper had no more devoted follower in America than this energetic romancer.
She died on August 20, 1886 in Newport, Rhod Island, at the home of Charles J. Peterson, her faithful friend and publisher.
Edgar Allan Poe described her at this time as "tall and slightly inclined to embonpoint, " with brilliant blue eyes and masses of blonde hair.
Connections
In 1831 she married Edward Stephens of Plymouth, Massachussets. They removed to Portland, Maine, which remained their home until 1837. Her two children survived her.