Cummins, Maria Susanna (1827–1866)

American author of the 1854 bestseller The Lamplighter, which drew attention to the rising popularity of women novelists. Born Maria Susanna Cummins on April 9, 1827, in Salem, Massachusetts; died on October 1, 1866, in Dorchester, Massachusetts; daughter of Mehitable (Cave) Cummins and David Cummins (a lawyer and judge); educated at Mrs. Charles Sedgwick's Young Ladies School; never married; no children.

Selected works:

The Lamplighter (1854); Mabel Vaughan (1857); El Fureidîs (1860); Haunted Hearts (1864).

Born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1827, Maria Susanna Cummins was the first child of David and Mehitable Cummins ; three more children would follow. Maria's father was a Norfolk Country Court judge with four children from two previous marriages. Maria led a privileged life and was formally educated in Lenox, Massachusetts, at the residential Mrs. Charles Sedgwick's Young Ladies' School. The school mistress' sister-in-law, author Catharine Maria Sedgwick , was the first fiction writer to whom Cummins was introduced. Following her graduation, Cummins returned to live with her parents in Salem, Massachusetts, where she began writing. At age 27, she published The Lamplighter. Within a month, the book sold 20,000 copies, then tripled those sales within a year (earning the enmity of Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was then struggling for commercial success). Although her articles and three subsequent novels never achieved the same popularity, Cummins was financially well-established. After her father's death, she moved to the Dorchester home of a sibling, taught Sunday school, and wrote. An abdominal illness that began in 1864 led to her death in 1866 at age 39.

sources:

Baym, Nina. "Introduction." The Lamplighter. New Brunswick, NY: Rutgers University Press, 1988.

suggested reading:

Estes, Glenn E., ed. Dictionary of Literary Biography, v. 42. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1985.

Crista Martin , Boston, Massachusetts