Laura Winthrop Johnson
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Laura Winthrop Johnson (September 13, 1825 – January 14, 1889) was an American author and poet. Laura Winthrop was born on September 13, 1825 in
New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...
. She was the daughter of Francis Bayard Winthrop and Elizabeth Woolsey, sister of Theodore Dwight Woolsey. Her siblings included novelist Theodore Winthrop and military lawyer William Winthrop. As a child, she was the subject of the poem "To Laura W- Two Years of Age" by
Nathaniel Parker Willis Nathaniel Parker Willis (January 20, 1806 – January 20, 1867), also known as N. P. Willis,Baker, 3 was an American writer, poet and editor who worked with several notable American writers including Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfello ...
. In 1846, she married W. Templeton Johnson. Though raised in New Haven, she spent most of her life in
Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...
. She published poetry, including "On Picket Duty," a
terza rima ''Terza rima '' (, also , ; ) is a rhyming verse form, in which the poem, or each poem-section, consists of tercets (three-line stanzas) with an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme: The last word of the second line in one tercet provides the rh ...
from the point of view of a Union soldier, which appeared in ''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...
'' in April 1864. In 1884, she published ''Life and Poems of Theodore Winthrop,'' a tribute to her deceased brother killed in the Civil War, whose literary reputation shortly after his death was quite high. She accompanied her husband on a lengthy trip to Wyoming. At the suggestion of her friend Annie Adams Fields, she kept a travel journal that was published in ''Lippincott's Magazine'' in June and July 1875 and as the volume ''Eight Hundred Miles in an Ambulance'' in 1889. It contains vivid descriptions of Laramie Peak, the
Sun Dance The Sun Dance is a ceremony practiced by some Native Americans in the United States and Indigenous peoples in Canada, primarily those of the Plains Indians, Plains cultures, as well as a new movement within Native American religions. Members of ...
,
Sitting Bull Sitting Bull ( ; December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota people, Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance against Federal government of the United States, United States government policies. Sitting Bull was killed by Indian ...
, and
Red Cloud Red Cloud (; – December 10, 1909) was a leader of the Oglala Lakota from 1865 to 1909. He was one of the most capable Native American opponents whom the United States Army faced in the western territories. He led the Lakota to victory over ...
. It also contains her oft-quoted unromantic description of
cowboys A cowboy is a professional pastoralist or mounted livestock herder, usually from the Americas or Australia. Cowboy(s) or The Cowboy(s) may also refer to: Film and television * ''Cowboy'' (1958 film), starring Glenn Ford * ''Cowboy'' (1966 film), ...
as "rough men with shaggy hair and wild, staring eyes, in butternut trousers stuffed into great rough boots." Winthrop Johnson died on 14 January 1889 in Staten Island.


Bibliography

* ''Little Blossom's Reward'' (Boston, 1854) as Emily Hare * ''Poems of Twenty Years'' (New York, 1874) * ''Life and Poems of Theodore Winthrop'' (New York, 1884) * '' Longfellow Prose Birthday Book'' (Boston, 1888) * ''Eight Hundred Miles in an Ambulance'' (Philadelphia: J. P. Lippincott, 1889)


References


External links


"On Picket Duty"
''The Atlantic,'' April 1864 {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Laura Created via preloaddraft 1825 births 1889 deaths American travel writers American poets Writers from New Haven, Connecticut Writers from Staten Island