Molly Elliot Seawell, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetMolly Elliot Seawell
United States writer
Date of Birth: 23-Oct-1860
Place of Birth: Gloucester Courthouse, Virginia, United States
Date of Death: 15-Nov-1916
Profession: novelist
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Scorpio 
About Molly Elliot Seawell
- Molly Elliot Seawell (October 23, 1860 – November 15, 1916) was an early American historian and writer. Seawell was a descendant of the Seawells of Virginia.
- She was a niece of President John Tyler.
- Reared upon a large plantation, she was educated somewhat after her own way, "turned loose in a library of good books." In her father's home, was found the best literature of the 18th century.
- She read these English classics, and was especially fond of poetry.
- She did not read a novel until after she was 17, and the first was Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield.
- Her three amusements were reading, riding and piano-playing.
- Her father, a prominent lawyer, died just as Seawell reached womanhood. She sent some stories to "Lippincott's Magazine." William S.
- Walsh was then editor, and he recognized the ability of the writer to be unusual, and encouraged her from the beginning.
- Her first stories were signed with a pen-name.
- Her friends persuaded her to sign her own name, but not until Maid Marian was published would she consent.
- This was undoubtedly her best story.
- She ventured into the field of juvenile literature when she sent Little Jarvis to "Youth's Companion" to contend for the US$500 prize.
- Possibly the essay, On the Absence of Creative Faculty in Women attracted more attention than any of Seawell's books.
- Women answered it, and the discussion was joined in by Andrew Lang, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and others.
- The "Critic" said that essay attracted more attention than any single article ever published in its columns.
- In style, Seawell was said to resemble Jane Austen.
- Seawell's works, besides numberless short stories, included: Young Heros of our Navy, Maid Marian and Other Stories, Midshipman Paulding, Hale Weston, Paul Jones, and The Midshipmen's Mess.
Read more at Wikipedia