Mary Ashley Townsend

Background

Mary Ashley Townsend was born on September 24, 1832 in Lyons, N. Y. She was the daughter of Catherine Van Winkle and her second husband, James G. Van Voorhis.

She was a frail child, and, perhaps because other pleasures were denied her, became devoted to reading early in life. She is reported to have written a good deal in her extreme youth, but to have burned this juvenile literature while still a child.

Education

She attended the district school, and later the academy, in Lyons.

Career

Mrs. Townsend's writings had begun to appear in print before her marriage, her first efforts being published in the Fishkill, N. Y. , Standard in 1850. While visiting a married sister in New Orleans, she began to write for the New Orleans Delta, a newspaper. She signed her first contributions "Xariffa, " the name under which she was to attract a wide circle of friendly readers. Under the name "Mary Ashley" she wrote for the New Orleans Crescent.

When she went to New Orleans to live she wrote for the Delta a series of essays called "Quillotypes. " Another series, also uncollected, was called "The Crossbones Papers. " During the winter of 1881 she contributed letters to the New Orleans Picayune describing her travels in Mexico. She wrote one novel, The Brother Clerks, published in New York in 1857. The scene is laid in New Orleans; the plot is melodramatic, the characterization feeble, and the emotional effects are not always happy. Although the book had some success, the author made no further efforts in extended fiction, but employed her talents more happily in verse.

Her first volume of verse, Xariffa's Poems, was published in Philadelphia in 1870. This was largely made up of her newspaper poems, and included her popular success, "Creed, " first printed in the Picayune, Nov. 1, 1868. The Captain's Story, published in Philadelphia in 1874, attracted a good deal of attention. The theme dealt with a supposedly white man who discovered that his mother was a mulatto, and the subject was handled with skill and restraint. Oliver Wendell Holmes praised this poem highly. Down the Bayou and other Poems, published in Boston in 1882, was dedicated to Holmes. Distaff and Spindle, a collection of sonnets, appeared in 1895. Easter Sunrise, illustrated by A. Molinary, was the only one of her poems to be published separately in New Orleans. Her verse, widely popular at the time of publication, is sincere and competent rather than inspired.

Mrs. Townsend entered fully into the social and literary life of New Orleans.

With Mary E. Moore Davis she edited an illustrated magazine called Arts and Letters, published in New Orleans during 1887. She was frequently called upon to write occasional poems.

She was injured in a railway accident in the spring of 1901, and died shortly afterwards at Galveston, Tex. , at the home of one of her two surviving daughters.

Achievements

• Mary Ashley Townsend was a famous 19th century American poet and novelist. She enjoyed many honors during her lifetime, especially by the Mexican government for her writings about the mexican lifestyle. Her work gained "high critical acclaim in the 1870s and 1880s".

Works

More photos

• book

  • Xariffa's Poems (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Xariffa's Poems Her lips, steeped in their ...)

  • Down the bayou and other poems

    (This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)

  • The Captain's Story (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Captain's Story Reserved and cold he wa...)

  • Distaff and Spindle: Sonnets 1895

    (Originally published in 1895. This volume from the Cornel...)

  • The Brother Clerks
  • Mary Ashley Townsend - Creed

Views

Quotations: "How much do I love thee? Go ask the deep sea How many rare gems In its coral caves be; Or ask the broad billows, That ceaselessly roar, How many bright sands Do they kiss on the shore?"

"I believe if I should die,

And you should kiss my eyelids where I lie

Cold, dead, and dumb to all the world contains,

The folded orbs would open at thy breath,

And from its exile in the Isles of Death

Life would come gladly back along my veins. "

Membership

She was one of the founders of the Quarante Club, and president for seven years.

Townsend was the first American invited to join the "Liceo Hidalgo", a prestigious Mexican literary club.

Personality

She enjoyed excellent health, and was noted as a gracious hostess and a brilliant conversationalist.

Interests

• French and Spanish literature, music, and art, were her chief cultural interests.

Connections

On November 8, 1853, she was married to Gideon Townsend of Fishkill, N. Y. After a short stay in Lyons, they moved first to Clinton, Iowa, and then, in 1860, to New Orleans, where Mr. Townsend had extensive interests in real estate, banking, and mercantile activities.

Her husband and her three daughters came first in her life.

Father:

James G. Van Voorhis

(1800–1833)

Mother:

Catherine Van Wickle Lyman

(1800–1895)

Spouse:

Gideon Townsend

(1826–1899)

References

• Southern Women's Writing, Colonial to Contemporary
• A History of American Literature (Classic Reprint)
• The South in the building of the nation. Thirteen periods of United States history : two addresses delivered at Washington D.C., and New Orleans, La.
• Past as Prelude, The: New Orleans 1718-1968