|
LUCY
LARCOM
Lucy
Larcom was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, on March
5, 1824. She was the daughter of Benjamin and Lois
Barrett Larcom; great granddaughter of David Larcom,
and descendant of Mordecai Larcom, born in 1629,
who
appeared in Ipswich in 1655, and soon after removed
to Beverly where he obtained a grant of land. Lucy's
father, was at her birth a retired sea-captain.
Her
mother, a homemaker, took care of all the children,
10 in total.
Lucy
grew up on Wallis Lane, with her family all nearby.
She truly felt at home in Beverly. She says in
her
autobiography, A New England Girlhood, "If
I had opened my eyes upon this planet elsewhere than
in this northeastern corner of Massachusetts, elsewhere
than on this green, rocky strip of shore between
Beverly
Bridge and the Misery Islands, it seems to me as
if I must have been somebody else, and not myself."
She was a very intelligent child, at the age of two
she was learning her letters at "Aunt Hannah's"
school and was reading at two and a half.
|
 |
She
had many wonderful memories of living on Wallis Lane.
Playing outdoors, picking wildflowers, exploring riverbeds,
looking at the vast ocean, and listening to fairy
tales from her sisters. It was at the time of her
father's death, in 1832, that her childhood was forever
changed.
Struggling
to manage the family's finances, her sisters were
forced into the workplace as tailors and the
younger
girls, Lucy included, had to maintain the housework.
Lucy's mother, however, decided at that time
to move
the family to Lowell to manage a boardinghouse for
one of the mills. This is where Lucy attended
school
for a couple of years and then worked in the mills,
first in the spinning room and after five
years,
as a bookkeeper in the cloth room. This was a life
of hard work, and the only real escape was writing
articles and poems for a small paper issued by
her
sister, Emeline. In 1843, after reading one of her
poems, she attracted the attention of John Greenleaf
Whittier, with whom she developed a life-long
friendship.
Her
sister, Emeline, decided to move to the Illinois
prairie
with her new husband, George Spaulding. Lucy, caught
up in their dreams, tagged along into the West
in
1846. They settled close to St. Louis, and she taught
at some local schools before entering Monticello
Female
Seminary as a half-student, half-teacher. She graduated
in 1852 and returned to Beverly. She then went
on
to become a formal teacher at Wheaton Seminary in
Norton, MA. She taught English Literature, Moral
Philosophy, Logic, History and Botany while at
Wheaton, and
it was at this time that she started writing prolifically
and
also
editing
some
books.
After leaving Norton because of her failing health,
Lucy became assistant editor to the Boston magazine,
"Our Young
Folks," in 1865. Becoming editor-in-chief only
a year later, Lucy conducted the magazine until
1874. Her works were also published in many
other leading periodicals of her time, such as:
The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's New Monthly Magazine,
and The New England Magazine.
Lucy
was a strong abolitionist and patriot, and she
rejoiced over the election of Abraham Lincoln as
President.
The Civil War was upon them, and to sum up her
feelings
about it all, this excerpt from a letter she wrote
to John G. Whittier explains: "I know you
do not believe in war: neither do I, it is barbarous,
it is hateful; and yet forced upon us as this is,
there is an instinct of resistance to wrong within
us all, the trumpet-call of Nature itself that
drowns
at once all previous beliefs and theories. If ever
there was a cause for fighting, there is now; and
I am not sure but that a bloody struggle would
be most
humane, as it would be brief."
Lucy
lived to be with her family, friends and students.
She never married; although, she came close to marrying
at one time, but even he couldn't take her away from
her beloved Beverly. She died in Boston on April 17,
1893.
Lucy
has been a light in my life. A strong human
being
with such conviction. I feel a lot of her in myself.
She has always been my hero even before I knew
for
sure that she was my distant cousin, six generations
ago.
 |
PUBLISHED
WORKS
- Similitudes
from the Ocean and the Prairie
(1854)
- Ships
in the Mist and Other Stories (1859)
- Leila
Among the Mountains (1861)
- Poems
(1868)
- An
Idyll of Work, a Story in Verse (1875)
- Childhood
Songs (1877)
- Wild
Roses of Cape Ann and Other Poems (1880)
- Poetical
Works (1884)
- A
New England Girlhood (1889)
- Easter
Gleams (1890)
- At
the Beautiful Gate and Other Songs
of Faith
(1892)
- The
Unseen Friend (1892)
- As
It Is in Heaven (1893)
|
EDITED
COLLECTIONS
- Breathings
of a Better Life (1867)
- Hillside
and Seaside Poetry (1876)
- Roadside
Poems for Summer Travelers (1877)
- Our
Young Folks (1865-1874)
BIOGRAPHIES
/ CRITICISM
- The
Worlds of Lucy Larcom, Shirley Marchalonis.
(Univ
of Georgia Press, 1989).
- The
Mill Girls: Lucy Larcom, Harriet Hanson
Robinson, Sarah G. Bagley, Bernice
Selden.
(Atheneum, 1983).
- Lucy
Larcom: Life, Letters, and Diary, Daniel
Dulany Addison. (Houghton
Mifflin,
1894).
|
|
 |
 |
- "Oh
Why Art Thou Roaming" (1847)
Sheet Music, words by Miss Lucy
Larcom. Digitized courtesy of
the LOC.
- "Come
Let Us Go A-Maying" (1855)
Sheet music, words by Miss Lucy
Larcom. Digitized courtesy of
the LOC.
- "Kansas
Prize Song" (1855)
Sheet Music, words by Miss Lucy
Larcom. Digitized courtesy of
the LOC.
- Poems (1869)
from the University of Michigan Making
of America website.
- Childhood
Songs (1875) American
Verse Project, University of
Michigan
- An
Idyll of Work (1875)
from the University of Michigan
Making of America website.
|
|
|
 |
|
