Stoddard, Elizabeth (Drew) Barstow

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STODDARD, Elizabeth (Drew) Barstow

Born 6 May, 1823, Mattapoisett, Massachusetts; died 1 August 1902, New York, New York

Wrote under: Elizabeth Stoddard

Daughter of Wilson and Betsey Drew Barstow; married Richard H. Stoddard, 1851; children: three, all of whom died young

Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard grew up in prosperous circumstances. She did not like school, but briefly attended Wheaton Female Seminary in Norton, Massachusetts. At home, her eager and intelligent personality attracted the attention of the town minister, Thomas Robbins, who gave her access to his excellent library. Taking full advantage of the opportunity to read widely, she became acquainted with the work of the best 18th-century authors. Stoddard moved to New York City after her marriage to Stoddard, a young writer. In spite of poverty and the early deaths of all three of the couple's children, the marriage was happy. Importantly, it resulted in Stoddard's acquaintance with many prominent contemporary literary figures, who made the Stoddard home a meeting place. She began writing, and produced numerous stories and poems, which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Knicker-bocker, and Appleton's Journal. Stoddard's Lolly Dinks' Doings (1874) is a book for children. None of her works are noteworthy today; however, her three novels are worth consideration in that they presage the trend toward realism in American literature.

The Morgesons (1862) is concerned with the development of Cassandra Morgeson, who seems remarkably like Stoddard herself. Daughter of an old family, Cassandra is intensely individualistic, not very well liked by those about her, but respected nevertheless. Sent to a distant town to attend an academy, she falls desperately in love with her cousin, Charles, in whose home she stays. After his death, she falls in love with wild, handsome Desmond Somers, an hereditary alcoholic. He goes abroad to reform, returns cured, and marries her. His brother, Ben, marries her elfish sister, Veronica, but six months after the birth of their child dies of drink. The story ends with the discovery that the baby is mentally defective.

Two Men (1865) is the story of two strangers who come into the Parke family and after many years find their happiness in each other's love, despite disparity of age. Jason Auster is the first "interloper." He marries proud Sarah Parke, who is secretly in love with her half-cousin, Osmond, long gone from home. When Jason and Sarah's son, Parke, is nine years old, Osmond returns to leave his ten-year-old daughter, Philippa, the second stranger, to grow up in the family. The years pass and Jason is more and more remote; Sarah and Philippa dislike each other intensely. The girl, however, loves the charming Parke and is sure she, and only she, can make him happy. Parke, unconscious of her devotion, has a love affair with a beautiful mulatto who dies bearing his child. His mother, Sarah, dies also, and he goes off to adventure in South America. Jason and Philippa, left alone, are after many months drawn together.

Temple House (1867) describes the strange doings and passions of the inhabitants of a great, decayed, barely furnished house. They are the owner, the retired sea captain Argus Gates; his worthless brother, George; George's wife; and their daughter, Temple. A shipwreck off the coast brings another member to the family—the mysterious and half-Spanish Sebastian Ford.

Both Van Wyck Brooks and Arthur Hobson Quinn praise Stoddard for attempting stark realism, and both see evidence of a spirit much like that of Emily Brontë. Her style is rough and occasionally difficult; at times her characters speak in riddles. Descriptions of nature are arresting, full of strange conceits and jolting figures. The reader is aware that Stoddard is determined never to glamorize life, though every so often she does lapse into Victorian sentimentality.

Other Works:

Poems (1895).

Papers of Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard are located in many institutions, including the American Antiquarian Society, the Boston Public Library, Columbia University, Duke University, Harvard University, the New York Public Library, and others.

Bibliography:

Buell, L. and S. Zagarell, "The Morgesons" and Other Writings, Published and Unpublished by Elizabeth Stoddard (1984). Harris, S., 19th-Century American Women's Novels: Interpretive Strategies (1990). Matlack, J. A., "The Literary Career of Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard" (unpublished dissertation, 1967). Stoddard, R. H., Recollections, Personal and Literary (1903).