Mary Tappan Wright - The Facts

compiled by Brian Kunde

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Mary Tappan Wright.

From my wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Tappan_Wright.

     Mary Tappan Wright (1851-1916) was an American novelist and short story writer best known for her acute characterizations and depictions of academic life. She was the wife of classical scholar John Henry Wright and the mother of utopian novelist Austin Tappan Wright and geographer John Kirtland Wright.

Life and family
     Wright was born Mary Tappan December 14, 1851 in Steubenville, Ohio,1 2 or December 18 of the same year,3 the daughter of Eli Todd Tappan, president of Kenyon College, and Lydia (McDowell) Tappan. She was educated at Auburn Young Ladies’ Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio.4 She married, April 2, 1878, John Henry Wright, then an associate professor of Greek at Dartmouth College and later professor of classical philology and dean of the Collegiate Board of Johns Hopkins University, professor of Greek at Harvard University, and dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The couple had three children, Elizabeth Tappan Wright (who died young), Austin Tappan Wright, and John Kirtland Wright. They lived successively in Hanover, New Hampshire, Baltimore, Maryland and Cambridge, Massachusetts, aside from one period during which John was a professor at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, when they resided in Greece.5 Wright was a founding member of the Boston Authors Club in 1900.6 Her husband died November 25, 1908, and she herself died August 25, 1916 in Cambridge.7 She was survived by her two sons.

Works
     Wright and her husband are said to have “worked together on their literary activities.”8 Wright’s first known published story was “How They Cured Him,” in the March 24, 1887 issue of The Youth’s Companion, one of several written for that periodical. Her tales for Scribner’s Magazine, beginning with “As Haggards of the Rock” (May 1890), attracted more notice, and the initial six of them were collected in her first book, A Truce, and Other Stories (1895). None of her subsequent short stories were gathered into book form during her lifetime.
     Much of her fiction, including her four novels, dealt with American university life. Her favorite setting was the fictional college town she called Dulwich in her short stories and Great Dulwich in her novels, which combines elements of both Kenyon College and Harvard University. Five of her published short stories and two of her novels share the venue; another of the novels mentions it peripherally.
     Wright’s first novel, Aliens (1902), attracted much attention for its portrait of contemporary northerners in a racially tense Southern college town. The Test (1904), the story of a wronged young woman, met with mixed reviews, though generally praised as well-written.9 10 11 The Tower (1906) was described as “a love story placed against the life of a college community taken from the faculty side and told with deep understanding and the most delicate art”12 and The Charioteers (1912) as “a story of the social life and environment of college professors and their families.”13
     Wright’s books were published by Charles Scribner’s Sons and D. Appleton & Company. Her short works appeared in Scribner’s Magazine, The Youth’s Companion, Christian Union and its successor The Outlook, The Independent, Harper’s Magazine, Harper’s Weekly, and the North American Review.
     All of Wright’s novels are currently available in e-editions on Google Book Search. Aliens was reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, LLC, in June, 2007; The Tower was reprinted by Kessinger in December, 2008. Wright's previously uncollected short stories were issued in new collections by Fleabonnet Press from December, 2007 to November, 2008.

Critical reception
     Wright’s writing was praised as having “a keen sense of humor, good descriptive powers, a good working knowledge of human nature, an effective style” and the ability to “tell a story well.”14 Her skill at characterization was also noted.15

Papers
     Wright’s papers, including correspondence and original manuscripts and fragments, are found in various archival collections at the Harvard University Library and the Houghton Library at Harvard College. An early commonplace book from 1870-77, containing mostly poetry, is in the Stone-Wright family papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Footnotes

  • 1. Leonard, John William, ed. Woman’s Who’s Who of America, 1914-1915, New York, The American Commonwealth Company, c1914, p. 907.
  • 2. Motter, H. L., ed. The International Who’s Who; Who’s Who in the World, 1912, New York, The International Who’s Who Publishing Company, c1911, p. 1121
  • 3. Lexikon der Frau in zwei Bünden. Band II, I-Z. Zürich, Encyclios Verlag 1954, p. 1662.
  • 4. Motter, H. L., ed. The International Who’s Who; Who’s Who in the World, 1912, New York, The International Who’s Who Publishing Company, c1911, p. 1121
  • 5. “Among the Authors” – article, New York Times, July 14, 1912, p. BR412.
  • 6. Flagg, Mildred Buchanan. Boston Authors Now and Then; More Members of the Boston Authors Club, 1900-1966. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dresser, Chapman & Grimes, 1966, p. 255.
  • 7. “Death Notices” - article, Boston Journal, August 28, 1916, p. 11.
  • 8. Flagg, Mildred Buchanan. Boston Authors Now and Then; More Members of the Boston Authors Club, 1900-1966. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dresser, Chapman & Grimes, 1966, p. 255.
  • 9. “A Study of Conscience” – review, New York Times, April 30, 1904, p. BR296.
  • 10. “Some February Books” – article, New York Times, January 30, 1904, p. BR66.
  • 11. Peattie, Elia W. “More Plays by Mr. Yeats” – review of these and other works, Chicago Daily Tribune, April 2, 1904, p. 13.
  • 12. “Scribner Spring Books” – display advertisement, New York Times, April 7, 1906, p. BR207.
  • 13. “Among the Authors” – article, New York Times, July 14, 1912, p. BR412.
  • 14. “A Study of Conscience” – review, New York Times, April 30, 1904, p. BR296.
  • 15. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge. New York, The Encyclopedia American Corporation, 1920, p. 570.
General references
  • American Authors and Books. 1640 to the present day. Third revised edition. By W.J. Burke and Will D. Howe. Revised by Irving Weiss and Anne Weiss. New York: Crown Publishers, 1972.
  • Adams, Oscar Fay. A Dictionary of American Authors. Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1897.
  • Coyle, William, ed. Ohio Authors and Their Books. Biographical data and selective bibliographies for Ohio authors, native and resident, 1796-1950. Cleveland: World Publishing Co., 1962.
  • The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge. New York: Encyclopedia Americana Corporation, 1920, p. 570.
  • Herringshaw, Thomas William, ed. Herringshaw’s National Library of American Biography. Chicago, Ill., American Publishers’ Association, 1914, p. 784.
  • Leonard, John William, ed. Woman’s Who’s Who of America. A biographical dictionary of contemporary women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. New York: American Commonwealth Co., 1914.
  • Lexikon der Frau in zwei Bünden. Band II, I-Z. Zürich, Encyclios Verlag 1954, p. 1662.
  • Motter, H. L., ed. The International Who’s Who; Who’s Who in the World, 1912, New York, The International Who’s Who Publishing Company, c1911, p. 1121.
  • Wallace, W. Stewart. A Dictionary of North American Authors Deceased before 1950. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1951.
  • Warner, Charles Dudley, ed. Biographical Dictionary and Synopsis of Books Ancient and Modern. Akron, OH: Werner Co., 1902.
  • Who Was Who in America. Volume 1, 1897-1942. Chicago: A. N. Marquis Company, 1943.
  • Who’s Who in America, a Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of the United States, 1903-1905. Chicago: A. N. Marquis & Company, 1903, p. 1658.
  • Who’s Who in New England. 2nd ed. Chicago, A. N. Marquis & Company, 1916. p. 1186.
Bibliography of Known Published Writings.


     The following listing is as complete as current knowledge allows. It was compiled on the basis of the online OCLC database of the holdings of numerous libraries around the country and the world, the venerable literary magazine index The Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature and its online counterpart The Reader’s Guide Retrospective (which however erroneously attributes to Wright one story, "Limitations," written by Edith Wyatt), and the invaluable electronic historical compendium of American magazines American Periodicals Series Online, 1740-1900. All of these resources provide comparatively comprehensive coverage of prominent publications while neglecting to a greater or lesser degree the more obscure. It is more than likely that some of Wright’s published tales have eluded the net, and remain to be rediscovered by some enterprising researcher.
     It should be noted that a considerable number of unpublished stories, along with drafts and fragments, are also preserved among Wright’s papers at the Harvard University Library.

Novels

  • Aliens (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1902) (pdf of original edition on Google Books)
  • The Test (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1904) (pdf of original edition on Google Books)
  • The Tower (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1906) (pdf of original edition on Google Books)
  • The Charioteers (D. Appleton & Company, 1912) (pdf of original edition on Google Books)
Collections Short stories Nonfiction  

Revision of the wikipedia article about Mary Tappan Wright posted and primarily written by Brian Kunde, which is public domain. Revised version ©2008-2011 by Brian Kunde.

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1st web edition posted 8/13/2008
This page last updated 9/19/2011.

Published by Fleabonnet Press.