Frances Miriam Whitcher

Frances Miriam Whitcher
Photograph of Whitcher, held by the Dunham Public Library, Whitesboro, New York
Born
Frances Miriam Berry

(1811-11-01)November 1, 1811
Whitestown, New York
DiedJanuary 4, 1852(1852-01-04) (aged 40)
Whitestown, New York
Occupation(s)Writer, humorist

Frances Miriam Berry Whitcher (1 November 1811–4 January 1852) was an American humorist, born in Whitestown, New York. Whitcher may have been the first significant woman prose humorist in the United States.

Early life

Frances Miriam Berry was born November 1, 1811, in Whitestown, Oneida County, New York. She was the daughter of Elizabeth Wells and innkeeper Lewis Berry. From a young age she was observed to have talent for writing and drawing.[1]

Writing

Whitcher contributed poems to the Saturday Gazette and Godey's Lady's Book during the 1840s. Her humorous creation, the comic fool the Widow Bedott (1856), made her a celebrity, and sold 100,000 copies during the decade following its publication.[1][2] Whitcher used her characters to satirize gentility, including issues such as fashion, social status, courtship, and hypocrisy. In 1855, The Widow Bedott Papers was gathered from her writings and published in book form, featuring the Widow Bedott. Afterwards, David R. Locke fashioned a coarsely amusing play starring Bedott.[3]

Personal life

On January 6, 1847, at the age of 35, she married Rev. Benjamin Williams Whitcher, and in the Spring of that year moved with her new husband to Elmira, New York, where he became the Rector of Trinity Church in April 1847. She had to put herself more into the public eye as a minister's wife. She died January 4, 1852, in Whitestown, New York.[1]

Further reading

  • Morris, Linda (1992). Women's Humor in the Age of Gentility: The Life and Works of Frances Miriam Whitcher. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2562-9. Retrieved 21 November 2024.

References

  1. ^ a b c Nancy A., Walker (1999). "Whitcher, Frances Miriam Berry". American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1601751. (subscription required)
  2. ^ Blair, Walter; McDavid, Raven Ioor (1983). The Mirth of a Nation: America's Great Dialect Humor. U of Minnesota Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-8166-1168-3.
  3. ^ Preston, Robyn M. (1999). "Frances Miriam Whitcher". In Ljungquist, Kent (ed.). Nineteenth-century American fiction writers. Detroit: Gale Research. pp. 296–301. ISBN 978-0-7876-3096-6. Retrieved 22 November 2024.