Mary eleanor wilkins freeman biography
Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman
American novelist (1852–1930)
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1852-10-31)October 31, 1852 Randolph, Massachusetts |
| Died | March 13, 1930(1930-03-13) (aged 77) Metuchen, New Jersey |
| Resting place | Hillside Cemetery, Scotch Plains, New Jersey |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | American |
| Notable works | A New England Nun |
| Notable awards | American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1926 |
| Spouse | Dr. Charles Manning Freeman (m.1902) |
Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman (October 31, 1852 – March 13, 1930) was an American author.
Biography
Freeman was born in Randolph, Massachusetts on October 31, 1852, to Eleanor Lothrop and Warren Edward Wilkins, who originally baptized her "Mary Ella". Freeman's parents were orthodox Congregationalists, bestowing a very strict childhood. Religious constraints play a key role in some of her works.
In 1867, the family moved to Brattleboro, Vermont, where Freeman graduated from the local high school before attending Mount Holyoke College (then, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary) in South Hadley, Massachusetts, for one year, from 1870 to 1871. She later finished her education at Glenwood Seminary in West Brattleboro. When the family's dry goods business in Vermont failed in 1873, the family returned to Randolph, Massachusetts. Freeman's mother died three years later, and she changed her middle name to "Eleanor" in her memory.
Freeman's father died suddenly in 1883, leaving her without any immediate family and an estate worth only $973. Wilkins returned to her hometown of Randolph. She moved in with a friend, Mary J. Wales, and began writing as her only source of income.
During a visit to Metuchen, New Jersey in 1892, she met Dr. Charles Manning Freeman, a non-practicing medical doctor seven years younger than she. After years of courtship and delays, the two were married on January 1, 1902. Immediat Works Cited/Consulted Csicsila, Joseph. "Mary Wilkins Freeman". In Oxford Bibliographies Online: American Literature. 15-Apr-2015. Glasser, Leah B. "Mary E. Wilkins Freeman." Heath Anthology of American Literature. Cengage Learning, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2015. "Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 15 Apr. 2015 Reichardt, Mary R., and Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman. Mary Wilkins Freeman: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1997. Print. Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 6: Mary Wilkins Freeman." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. Westbrook, Perry D. "Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (31 October 1852-15 March 1930)." American Short-Story Writers, 1880-1910. Ed. Bobby Ellen Kimbel and William E. Grant. Vol. 78. Detroit: Gale, 1989. 159-173. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 78. Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
Best summary PDF, themes, and quotes. More books than SparkNotes.
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman was born in Randolph, Massachusetts in 1852, and she moved with her family to Brattleboro, Vermont at a young age. She attended the all-women college Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College) but only lasted one year. She then returned to her family's home in Vermont, to teach at a local girls' school. Over the ensuing years, Mary began to write, initially publishing poems in children's magazines and then transitioning to adult fiction. During those years, she began to earn a reputation for her work, which supplemented her family's small income. Once her mother and her father died, Mary moved back to Randolph, Massachusetts.
In Randolph, Mary moved in with another Mary: a close friend, Mary Wales. Scholars have speculated that the two women were romantically involved. Either way, Mary Wilkins lived on Mary Wales's family farm for twenty years, which allowed her to spend most of her time writing. Her first major literary success was during these years when Harper Bazaar published her short story "Two Old Lovers" in 1883. An acclaimed collection of stories followed, and "A New England Nun" was published several years later.
This period was interrupted when, at nearly fifty years old, Mary married Charles M. Freeman, a physician-turned-businessman from New Jersey. They had put off their marriage over an engagement period of nine years. When they finally did marry, and Mary moved to New Jersey, the marriage quickly went south. First of all, the move to New Jersey took Mary out of the New England context in which she placed her writing, and thus deprived her of her inspiration. At the same time, Charles's alcoholism quickly became apparent and worsened. Mary supported the couple by continuing to write until Charles was institutionalized and she obtained a legal separation. She continued to live in New Jersey until her death of a heart attack in 1930.
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852-1930)
Contributing Editor: Leah Blatt Glasser
Classroom Issues and Strategies
The best strategy in approaching Mary Wilkins Freeman's work is to provide a full context for both her life and period and to select particularly paradoxical passages for class discussion. It is especially enlightening to discuss the endings of her stories, which often disappoint students or trouble them. Have students consider possible revisions of these endings and then discuss why Freeman might have chosen to conclude as she did.
Students may wish to consider the title of "The Revolt of 'Mother' " and its implications. What is the nature of Sarah's "revolt"? Why does Freeman put "mother" in quotation marks? Students may be interested to know that Freeman's father, Warren Wilkins, gave up his plan of building the house Eleanor, Freeman's mother, had hoped for. Instead, the family moved in 1877 into the home in which Eleanor was to serve as hired housekeeper. Freeman's mother was thus "deprived of the very things which made a woman proud, her own kitchen, furniture, family china; and she had lost the one place in which it was acceptable for her to be powerful: her home" (Clark 177).
Another interesting comment is this one, made by Freeman in the Saturday Evening Post, published December 8, 1917 (long after the publication of the story). In the following excerpt, Freeman disparages her story for its lack of realism:
In the first place all fiction ought to be true and "The Revolt of 'Mother' " is not true. . . . There never was in New England a woman like Mother. If there had been she certainly would have lacked the nerve. She would also have lacked the imagination. New England women of that period coincided with their husbands in thinking that the sources of wealth should be better housed than the consumers.
"A Church Mouse" provides a good example of Freeman's duality. Ask students to s