Mary Hartwell Catherwood facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mary Hartwell Catherwood
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| Born | Mary Hartwell December 16, 1847 Luray, Ohio |
| Died | December 26, 1902 (aged 55) Chicago, Illinois |
| Resting place | Floral Hill Cemetery, Hoopeston |
| Pen name | Mary Hartwell; Lewtrah |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Granville Female College |
| Genre | Historical romance; short story; poetry |
| Spouse | James Steele Catherwood |
| Children | Hazel Catherwood |
Mary Hartwell Catherwood (December 16, 1847 – December 26, 1902) was an American writer. She was famous for her popular historical romance novels, short stories, and poems. Early in her career, she used her birth name, Mary Hartwell. She also used the pen name Lewtrah, which was "Hartwell" spelled backward without the last letter. Mary was known for setting her stories in the Midwest. She was also very interested in American dialects, which are different ways people speak. She made sure her historical novels were very accurate with details from the past.
Mary's Early Life and Education
Mary Hartwell was born in Luray, Ohio. She was one of three children. Her parents were Marcus and Pheba Hartwell. When Mary was nine, her father, who was a doctor, moved the family to Milford, Illinois. Both of her parents died soon after this. Mary and her siblings were then raised by their grandfather.
Mary earned a teacher's certificate when she was only 13 years old. She started teaching children in local schools the very next year.
Around 1865, Mary went to the Granville Female College. She finished her four-year course in just three years and graduated in 1868. After college, she taught school again for a while. In 1875, she moved to Cincinnati for a year to work as a writer. She left when a tough economic time, called the Long Depression, made it hard to sell writing.
In 1877, she married James Steele Catherwood. He was a businessman from Hoopeston, Illinois. Later, he became a postmaster. They had a daughter named Hazel, who was born in 1884. The Catherwoods mostly lived in Hoopeston. A club named the Mary Hartwell Catherwood Club was even started there after she became a well-known writer.
They also lived in Indianapolis for three years (1879–1882). In 1899, Catherwood decided she needed to spend more time in Chicago. This was to be closer to her publishers and for her daughter's schooling. So, she got an apartment there. This apartment became her second home until she passed away.
Becoming a Writer
Catherwood started sending poems and news stories to the Newark (Ohio) American newspaper when she was 15. The editor was surprised to learn how young she was. She began publishing in that paper. Soon after, she started publishing outside of Ohio too. She published her poems and later her short stories in popular magazines. These included Lippincott's Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, and the Atlantic Monthly.
Catherwood developed a special writing style. She included Midwestern culture, dialects, and local details in her stories and novels. Many of her early stories and books were set in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Later in her career, she became interested in early French culture in North America. Some of her later books are set near the Canada–U.S. border, in Quebec, and on colonial Mackinac Island.
She wrote books for both adults and children. Her children's books include The Dogberry Bunch (1880), Rocky Fork (1882), and Old Caravan Days (1884). She paid close attention to local details and daily life. This helped American children's literature move away from being too emotional during that time.
Catherwood did a lot of research for her historical novels. She even made several research trips to Europe and Canada. A famous historian named Francis Parkman praised how accurate her novels were. People even called her the "Parkman of the West." Parkman wrote an introduction for her book The Romance of Dollard (1889).
While living in Indianapolis, she became friends with the poet James Whitcomb Riley. They both loved American dialects. Catherwood also helped Riley start his writing career. In 1886, Catherwood joined Riley, Maurice Thompson, and many others. They formed a group called the Western Association of Writers.
The actor Otis Skinner turned one of her last books, Lazarre (1901), into a stage play in 1902. The play's cast included Nanette Comstock.
Mary Hartwell Catherwood was working on a new novel called Tippicanoe. But in 1902, she died of cancer in Chicago, Illinois. She was buried in Floral Hill Cemetery in Hoopeston. Her writings and papers are kept at the Newberry Library in Chicago and the Ohioana Library in Columbus.
Selected Books
- A Woman in Armor (1875, as Mary Hartwell) (HathiTrust)
- The Dogberry Bunch (1879) (HathiTrust)
- Craque-o'-Doom (1881) (HathiTrust)
- Rocky Fork (1883) (HathiTrust)
- Old Caravan Days (1884) (HathiTrust)
- The Secrets at Roseladies (1888) (HathiTrust)
- The Romance of Dollard (1889) (HathiTrust)
- The Story of Tonty (1890) (HathiTrust)
- The Lady of Fort St. John (1892) (HathiTrust)
- White Islander (1893) (HathiTrust)
- Old Kaskaskia (1893) (HathiTrust)
- Chase of Saint-Castin and Other Stories of the French in the New World (1894) (HathiTrust)
- The Days of Jeanne d'Arc (1897) (HathiTrust)
- The Queen of the Swamp, and Other Plain Americans (1899) (HathiTrust)
- Mackinac and Lake Stories (1899) (HathiTrust)
- Spanish Peggy (1899) (HathiTrust)
- Heroes of the Middle West (1901) (HathiTrust)
- Lazarre (1901; illustrations by André Castaigne) (HathiTrust)
