Clarissa Allen

{{Infobox writer

| name = Clarissa Minnie Thompson Allen

| honorific_prefix =

| honorific_suffix =

| image = Clarissa M. Thompson 50310u.tif

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption = Portrait of educator Clarissa M. Thompson, ca. 1872

| birth_name = Clarissa Minnie Thompson

| birth_date = October 1, 1859Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982

| birth_place = Columbia, South Carolina, United States

| death_date = {{dda|1941|11|23|1859|10|1}}

| death_place = Milam, Texas

| resting_place =

| occupation = Educator
author

| language = English

| education = Howard Junior High School

}}

Clarissa Minnie Thompson Allen (October 1, 1859 – November 23, 1941) was an American educator and author. She wrote fictional stories about wealthy African-American families in the American South.

Personal life

File:Clarissa Thompson.jpg

Clarissa Minnie Thompson was born in Columbia, South Carolina, one of nine children of Eliza Henrietta Montgomery, a socialite, and Samuel Benjamin Thompson, a delegate in the South Carolina Constitutional Convention. She attended Howard Junior High School and a normal school in South Carolina. She worked at three different schools, including Allen University, where she taught subjects like algebra, Latin, physical geology, and history. She moved to Jefferson, Texas, around 1886, where she taught at a public school. She also lived in Ft. Worth, Texas, and worked in the public school system.{{cite book|author=Yolanda Williams Page|title=Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iTWu0aSofkkC|accessdate=November 13, 2012|date=January 30, 2007|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-33429-0|pages=9–10}}

Career

Allen wrote fiction based around true stories about wealthy African-American families in the Southern United States. Her most notable work was Treading the Winepress, also called A Mountain of Misfortune. The book consisted of 41 stories about two families. The stories took place in "Capitolia," which was based on Columbia, South Carolina. The book includes love triangles and murder, as well as themes of womanhood, charity, and madness. It was a serialized publication{{cite book|author=Elizabeth Ann Beaulieu|title=Writing African American Women|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZbyBKRvoot8C&pg=PA6|accessdate=November 13, 2012|date=April 2006|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-02462-7|pages=6–7}} and believed to be the first novel by an African-American woman from South Carolina.Epps, Edwin C. Literary South Carolina. Hub City Writers Project: 2004: 25. {{ISBN|9781891885358}} She also wrote novelettes for Texas-based publications. Her poetry was also published in African American newspapers. Some reviewers believed that her work was anti-religious, specifically towards the African Methodist Episcopal Church.