Harriet Vaughan Cheney (September 9, 1796 – May 14, 1889) was an American-Canadian novelist. She wrote a number of historical romances, among them ''A Peep at the Pilgrims in Sixteen Thirty-Six'' and ''The Rivals of Acadia'', as well as religious works for children.

Biography

Harriet Vaughan Cheney was born in

Brighton, Massachusetts Brighton is a former town and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, located in the northwestern corner of the city. It is named after the English city of Brighton. Initially Brighton was part of Cambridge, and known as " ...

, September 9, 1796. Her father was John Foster, a Unitarian clergyman. Her mother,

Hannah Webster Foster Hannah Webster Foster (September 10, 1758/59 – April 17, 1840) was an American novelist. Her epistolary novel, '' The Coquette; or, The History of Eliza Wharton'', was published anonymously in 1797. Although it sold well in the 1790s, it was n ...

, and her sister,

Eliza Lanesford Cushing Eliza Lanesford Cushing (October 19, 1794 – May 4, 1886) was an American-Canadian dramatist, short story writer, and editor. The daughter of Hannah Webster Foster and sister of Harriet Vaughan Cheney, both novelists, she wrote a number of ...

, were also both writers. Cheney published her first works in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. In 1830, she married Canadian merchant Edward Cheney, with whom she would have four children, and moved to

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, where she would spend the rest of her life. Her sister Eliza had also married a Canadian and moved to Montreal, and the two regularly contributed stories and poems to '' Literary Garland'', Canada's foremost literary magazine of the time. Cheney continued to publish her longer works in Boston. After the deaths of their husbands in 1845 and 1846, the two sisters founded the ''Snow-Drop'', a monthly girls' magazine "primarily concerned with social roles and domestic responsibilities appropriate for young women." Cheney died in 1889.

Selected works

Title Page of A Peep at the Pilgrims in Sixteen Hundred Thirty Six

*''The Sunday-School, or Village Sketches'' (1820, with Eliza Cushing) *''A Peep at the Pilgrims in Sixteen Thirty-Six: A Tale of Olden Times'' (1824, anonymous) *''The Rivals of Acadia: an Old Story of the New World'' (1827, anonymous) *''Sketches from the Life of Christ'' (1844) *''Confessions of an Early Martyr'' (1846) *''The Snow-Drop'' (periodical, 1847–52, with Eliza Cushing) *Stories for ''The Literary Garland'': :*"Jacques Cartier and the Little Indian Girl" (1848) :*"The Emigrants" (1850) :*"Cousin Emma" (1850) :*"A Legend of the Lake" (1851) :*"The Old Manuscript: A Memoire of the Past" (1851) *"Early Authorship" (essay for the ''Garland'', 1850)

References

Bibliography

External links

* * * Cushing, Eliza Lanesford, and Harriet Vining Cheney. The Snow drop; or, Juvenile Magazine. Lovell and Gibson, Montreal
Vol. I, 1848.Vol. II, 1849Vol. III, 1850Vol. IV, 1850
All 4 volumes accessed 4 January 2014, in PDF format. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cheney, Harriet Vaughan 1796 births 1889 deaths 19th-century American women writers 19th-century American novelists 19th-century Canadian novelists 19th-century American short story writers American women novelists Canadian women novelists American emigrants to Canada American women short story writers American children's writers Canadian children's writers American women children's writers Immigrants to Lower Canada Province of Canada people Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period