 |
Sarah
Parton (Fanny Fern), journalist, novelist
 “I
am sick, in an age which produced a Brontë and a [Barrett]
Browning, of the prate of men who assert that every woman
should be a perfect housekeeper, and fail to add, that every
man should be a perfect carpenter."
Sarah Payson Willis Parton,
better known as Fanny Fern, a successful novelist, noted
humorist, champion of women's rights, and the first American
woman newspaper columnist, spoke these infamous words on
November 17, 1860. Fern’s pen was no
less sharp than her mouth. From a young age she proved to be full of life, earning
the schoolgirl nickname of “Sal Volatile.”
Born in 1811, in Portland, Maine,
Parton led a happy childhood. Her family had a background
in journalism, no doubt from which she attained her life
ambition. Parton was one of nine children, four of which
went on to pursue journalism as a career.
After attending
Miss Catherine Beecher's Ladies Seminary in Harford, Conn.—where she met and befriended Harriet Beecher (Stowe)—she married Charles
H. Eldredge, an affluent banker, in 1837. They had three children and raised
them together until 1846, when Charles died. Needing a means to support her children,
she married Samuel P. Farrington, a Boston merchant and widower, in 1849. A very
messy separation and divorce ensued three years later.
Her family refused to
support her after her divorce, and after trying to earn a
living teaching and sewing, Parton, living in “undesirable” lodgings, gave her daughter Grace to
her Eldredge grandparents. Destitute, Parton turned to writing and Fanny Fern
was born.
Fern wrote for The
Mother’s Assistant, the True
Flag, and the Olive
Branch, small Boston magazines, attracting the publisher James C. Derby who collected
her writings in Fern Leaves from Fanny's
Port-Folio, published in 1853, an instant
bestseller, followed by a sequel, Fern
Leaves, in 1854 and a copy for younger
folks, Little Ferns for Fanny's Little
Friends. Soon, Robert Bonner, owner of
the New York Ledger, added her to the list of contributors for the sum of $100
for writing a weekly column, making her the highest paid and first woman columnist
in America. She stayed at the Ledger for the next 15 years, amassing a fan base
of over half a million readers per week.
Fern also wrote two novels,
the immensely popular Ruth Hall in 1855, and Rose
Clark in
1856. Also in 1856, she married her third husband, the biographer
James Parton, a man 11 years her junior.
Fern was far ahead
of her contemporaries when it came to equality between the
sexes. She spurned the double standard of housework and “too-large” families and became
very critical of conventional religion. She wrote on many subjects, including
literature, prison reform, prostitution, venereal disease, family planning, divorce,
education, and generally, rights for women. Fern died in New York City in 1872
at age 61, after six years of struggling with cancer.
|
|
