Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects

Terry Novak (Johnson and Wales University)

Ed. by Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.2: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth Century, 1783-1900.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1854

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Essay Collection

Resources

Frances Harper’s Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects was first published in 1854 under the author’s birth name, Frances Ellen Watkins. The concise collection of poems and essays met with extensive critical and commercial success in Harper’s day. The book sold 10,000 copies in its first five years; by 1871 the book was in its 20^th edition. The volume’s first edition includes a preface signed “W.L.G.”; scholars have concluded that these initials belong to famed abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. The importance of such a preface is not to be underestimated. In what becomes a typical introduction to a nineteenth century work written by an African American, Garrison attests to the intelligence and …

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299 words

Citation: Novak, Terry. "Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 August 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10208, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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