Template:Short description Template:Infobox person/Wikidata Template:Use mdy dates Hannah Webster Foster (September 10, 1758/59 – April 17, 1840)<ref>Template:Britannica</ref> was an American novelist.
Her epistolary novel, The Coquette; or, The History of Eliza Wharton, was published anonymously in 1797.Template:Sfn Although it sold well in the 1790s, it was not until 1866 that her name appeared on the title page. In 1798, she published The Boarding School; or, Lessons of a Preceptress to Her Pupils, a commentary on female education in the United States.Template:Sfn
BiographyEdit
Born in Salisbury, Massachusetts, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, it is likely that Foster (née Webster) attended an academy for women like the one she described in The Boarding School; certainly, the literary allusions and historical facts contained in her work indicate she was well educated.Template:Sfn
In the 1770s she began writing political articles for Boston newspapers, and in 1785 she married a Dartmouth graduate, the Rev. John Foster.Template:Sfn The two settled in Brighton, Massachusetts, where John Foster served as a pastor at First Church.Template:Sfn
She bore six children, after which she wrote her two books and subsequently returned to newspaper writing. When her husband died in 1829, she moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to be with her daughters.Template:Sfn She died in Montreal, aged 81.
WorksEdit
Foster's first novel, The Coquette; or, The History of Eliza Wharton (1797) is a fictionalized account of the true story of Elizabeth Whitman, the subject of a sensational news story in New England.Template:Sfn Whitman was seduced by an unknown suitor, became pregnant, and died shortly after the birth of her stillborn child at an inn in Danvers, Massachusetts.Template:Sfn The story became the subject of many treatises on the dangers of immorality, particularly the sexual immorality of women.Template:Sfn Foster's novel follows the same story as the life of the real Elizabeth Whitman, but changes her name to Eliza Wharton and uses a fictional character to stand in for Elizabeth's seducer, who was never conclusively identified.Template:Sfn The best-selling novel presents Whitman's story as a morality tale against flirtatiousness, but also depicts Eliza as a sympathetic, complex character, extending the novel's purpose beyond that of simply a sermon against immorality.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Foster's second novel, The Boarding School; or, Lessons of a Preceptress to Her Pupils, an exploration of the topic of women's education, was far less commercially successful than The Coquette.Template:Sfn Taking place in a female academy, the novel consists of the headmistress's reflections on morality and the students's letters to each other regarding their education.Template:Sfn Through the novel, Foster advocated for women's education.Template:Sfn
Personal lifeEdit
Her daughters Harriet Vaughan Cheney and Eliza Lanesford Cushing were popular writers in the nineteenth century.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Cheney published A Peep at the Pilgrims in 1636, Confessions of an Early Martyr, The Rivals of Acadia and Sketches from the Life of Christ. Cushing published Esther, a dramatic poem, and works for the young. The two sisters wrote in conjunction The Sunday-School, or Village Sketches.
ReferencesEdit
CitationsEdit
SourcesEdit
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