Hannah Farnham Lee

Background

Hannah Farnham Sawyer Lee was born in Newburyport, Massachussets, where her baptism on November 12, 1780, is recorded. Her father, Dr. Micajah Sawyer, was a well-known physician.

Career

Lee began her literary career at the mature age of fifty-two. Her first publication was an appreciation of Hannah Adams appended to the Memoir of Hannah Adams, edited by Joseph Tuckerman. The authorship of this article was ascribed to "A Friend, " and indeed none of her works was published under her own name.

In 1835 she wrote a story, Grace Seymour, but though it was printed it was never distributed to the public, for practically the entire edition was destroyed by fire, and it was never republished. Her greatest success was achieved in 1837, when she published her Three Experiments of Living. This discussed living under, up to, and over one's income; and it went through thirty American and ten English editions, part of its popularity being probably due to the fact that the financial depression of 1837 made its subject timely. Taking advantage of the popularity of this work, she had bound up with some of its later editions enough of her other writings to make a fairsized volume. These were "Elinor Fulton, " "Contrast, or Modes of Education, " "Rich Enough, " and other rather short tract-like compositions designed to foster thrift and self-improvement. After this she began a series of educational works.

In 1838 she published Historical Sketches of Old Painters; in 1839 Rosanna, or Scenes in Boston, and The Life and Times of Martin Luther; in 1841 The Life and Times of Thomas Cranmer; in 1843 The Huguenots in France and America; in 1844 The Log Cabin; or, the World Before You; in 1850 Sketches and Stories from Life: for the Young; in 1853 the Memoir of Pierre Toussaint; and in 1854 Familiar Sketches of Sculpture and Sculptors. These were her best-known works. None of them was very long, for she was not a voluminous writer.

Achievements

• Lee seems to have outlived her fame, for no lengthy obituaries appeared at her death, and no biography or memoirs have been published; but from her first success to the early fifties she was widely read and frequently cited as an admirable and influential writer, although even in this period she was sometimes treated as superficial, as by a critic in the New Englander (February 1854) who dismissed her Sketches of Sculpture as a compilation that did not justify his notice. From 1837 to 1854 Lee published over 20 novels, collections of tales and sketches, and educational works. The best of her work was her "Three Experiments of Living", published in 1837.

Works

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  • The Life and Times of Thomas Cranmer

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Rosanna; or, Scenes in Boston. A Story

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Scenes and Characters Illustrating Christian Truth

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • The Contrast: Or, Modes of Education

    ( About the Book Teaching methods comprise the principles...)

  • Elinor Fulton

    (A classic work by Hannah Farnham Sawyer Lee and sequel to...)

  • The Log Cabin; or, The World Before You

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • Three Experiments of Living

    (A classic American novel by Hannah Farnham Sawyer Lee. Th...)

  • The Huguenots in France and America. Two Volumes in One

    (Book by Lee, Hannah Farnham Sawyer)

  • Rich Enough a tale of the times
  • Rich Enough

Connections

On January 20, 1807, Lee was married to George Gardner Lee of Boston, who had been for a time an officer in the United States navy. Her husband died in 1816 leaving her with three daughters.

Father:

Micajah Sawyer

Physician

Spouse:

George Gardner Lee