Emma Frances Dawson
{{short description|American poet}}
File:Emma Frances Dawson (The story of the files, 1893).png
Emma Frances Dawson (1839–1926) was an American poet and writer of supernatural fiction.
Early life
Dawson was born in New England, but by 1880 was living in California, eventually in San Francisco, the setting for most of her stories. Following the 1906 earthquake, she moved to Palo Alto.
Career
Dawson wrote short stories and poems, originally printed in regional publications such as the Argonaut and Overland Monthly. Most of her fiction was reprinted in a collection An Itinerant House, and Other Stories (see references). The work is notable not just for its merit as atmospheric supernatural fiction, but for its detailed description of 19th century San Francisco. Ambrose Bierce, who seems to have been a mentor to Dawson in her literary efforts, praised her work as some of the best being written in the West Coast and representative of the region (as well as having similar high praise for verse).
Despite critical praise and local celebrity status (she was often invited to give public readings of her poems), she struggled to make a living as a writer; reprinting one of her poems, an 1898 newspaper{{cite journal |title=Old Glory |journal=Evening Sentinel |date=23 June 1898 |volume=3 |issue=20 |page=2 |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=ES18980623.1.2}} reported she was "so poor that she could not pay her rent last week till the recipient of $50 at the hands of (San Francisco) Mayor Phelan."
Publications
- {{cite journal|journal=Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine|date=Jan 1875|volume=14|issue=1|pages=56–64|title=The Romance of a Lodger}}
- {{cite journal|journal=Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine|date=May 1875|volume=14|issue=5|pages=428–438|title=A Dead-Head}}
- {{cite journal|journal=Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine|date=Dec 1893|volume=22|issue=132|pages=655–658|title=The Voice of California}}
- {{cite journal|date=20 Feb 1894|title=A Divine Feast (Translation; originally appeared Short Stories; reprinted in the Hanford Journal)|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=HJW18940220.2.13}}
- {{cite journal|date=23 June 1895|title=Story of a Haunted Windmill (San Francisco Call)|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC18950623.2.120|website=UCR California Digital Newspaper Collection}}
- {{cite journal|journal=Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine|date=Oct 1898|volume=32|issue=190|pages=356–357|title=Comrades Three}}
- {{cite book|date=1897|title=An Itinerant House and Other Stories|publisher=W. Doxey|url=https://archive.org/details/anitineranthouse00dawsrich|via=archive.org}} Contents: An Itinerant House; Singed Moths; A Stray Reveler; The Night Before the Wedding; The Dramatic is My Destiny; A Gracious Visitation; A Sworn Statement; "The Second Card Wins"; In Silver Upon Purple; "Are the Dead Dead?"
- {{cite book|date=1897|title=Ballade of Liberty: And Other Patriotic Verses|publisher=Stanford University Press|url=https://archive.org/details/balladofliberty00dawsrich/page/n1|via=archive.org}}
- {{cite journal|journal=The Argonaut|date=31 July 1915|volume=LXXVII|number=2001|title=The Death's-Head Masker (Translation from French)|pages=68}}
- {{cite web|title=A Gracious Visitation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PWs4AAAAIAAJ&dq=%22A+GRACIOUS+VISITATION%22&pg=PP8 |publisher=Book Club of California |date=1921}}
- {{cite book|date=2007|title=An Itinerant House and Other Ghost Stories|publisher=Thomas Loring}} Reprint of 1897 collection with biographical introduction and several additional stories: The Romance of a Lodger; A Dead-Head; Shadowed; The Enchanted Ship (translation of "Die Geschichte von dem Gespensterschiff" by Wilhelm Hauff).
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- {{cite journal|last1=Purdy|first1=Helen Throop|title=Emma Frances Dawson|journal= California Historical Society Quarterly|date=1926|volume=5|issue=1|page=87|doi=10.2307/25177798|jstor=25177798}}
- {{cite web|last1=Hanley|first1=Terence|url=http://tellersofweirdtales.blogspot.com/2012/10/emma-frances-dawson-ca-1839-1926.html|website=Tellers of Weird Tales|title=Emma Frances Dawson|date=2012-10-29}}
- {{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5UrsAAAAIAAJ&q=%22emma+frances+dawson%22++%22ambrose+bierce%22++%22the+lark%22&pg=PT171|website=Google Books|title=An Itinerant House (Advertisement in The Lark Magazine)|year=1897}}
- [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl?type=bib&q1=dawson%2C+emma Works by Emma Frances Dawson] in the [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl University of Michigan Making of America Journal Archive]
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Category:19th-century American poets
Category:20th-century American poets