Anna M. Fitch
Anna M. Fitch | |
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.png) Fitch in an 1893 publication. | |
| Born | Anna Mariska (or Marizba) Corry (or Cory) March 1840 Shoreham, Vermont, U.S. |
| Died | April 15, 1904 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
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Anna M. Fitch (née Corry or Cory; after first marriage, Schultz or Shultz; after second marriage, Fitch; 1840-1904) was an American writer. She was among the first of Californian women to produce a novel.[1] Her many pen names included: Anna Guesner, Anna Kluesner, and Marisa A. Guesner.[2] It was said that she helped her second husband, Thomas Fitch, the politician and orator, to write his speeches and that he helped her write her poems.[3]
Early life
[edit]Anna Mariska (or Marizba) Corry (or Cory) was born in Shoreham, Vermont in March 1840.[4] Her parents were Caleb Corry and Eliza (née Turner). She had 5 siblings - James, Elizabeth, William, Janet and Charles.[2]
She was a ward of Gen. Edward Dickinson Baker.[5]
Career
[edit]Fitch was connected with The Hesperian in its early days. Extracts from an unpublished poem, "Persia", were contributed to the San Franciscan. Nearly ten years later, this same poem, completed, was issued by Putnam in New York City, under the title of The Loves of Paul Fenly.[1] During the time that Fitch served as the editor of the "Ladies' and Home Department" in the Occidental,[6] Mark Twain commented:— "We expected great things of the Occidental. Of course it could not get along without an original novel, and so we made arrangements to hurl into the work the full strength of the company. Mrs. F(itch) was an able romancist of the ineffable school —I know no other name to apply to a school whose heroes are all dainty and all perfect. She wrote the opening chapter".[7]
In 1871, she became one of the first women in California to publish a novel; it was titled Bound Down.[1] In 1874, she published a play, Items: A Washington Society Play.[8] Better Days or a Millionaire of To-morrow, published in 1891, was co-authored by Fitch with her second husband, Thomas.[1]
Personal life
[edit]Anna married twice. Her first husband was John Schultz, a miner. She met her second husband, Thomas Fitch,[9] in Placerville, California, where they married in 1863.[10] she married the politician and orator, Thomas Fitch.[2] While Thomas served as a Congressman (1869-71), the couple lived in Washington, D.C. where Mrs. Fitch was associated with Harriet Stanwood Blaine (Mrs. James G. Blaine), Sara Jane Lippincott ("Grace Greenwood"), Matilda Lindsay Stephens (Mrs. Gen. Alexander H. Stephens), and Elizabeth Evans Rhodes Townsend (Mrs. George Alfred Townsend).[3]
By 1881, Fitch had crossed the U.S. thirty-six times by stage or railroad, besides an ocean voyage between New York City and San Francisco.[5]
In later life, Fitch and her husband were associated with Samuel L. Clemens ("Mark Twain,") Joaquin Miller, Rollin M. Daggett, Minister to the Hawalian Islands, and John Shertzer Hittell, of San Francisco. In poor health for several years, since 1901, Fitch and her husband lived most of the time in the Hawaiian Islands. They came to Los Angeles, California in November 1903, where she died on April 15, 1904,[4] of Bright's disease brought on by typhoid.[3]
Selected works
[edit]- Better Days: or, A Millionaire of To-morrow, 1891, with Thomas Fitch (text)
- Bound Down: Or Life and Its Possibilities, 1870 (text)
- Items: A Washington Society Play, 1874
- The Loves of Paul Fenly, 1893 (text)
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Mighels, Ella Sterling (1893). "California Writers and Literature". The story of the files; a review of Californian writers and literature. San Francisco: Cooperative Printing Co. pp. 299–300. Retrieved 5 February 2025 – via Internet Archive.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ a b c "Anna Mariska Fitch". geni_family_tree. 5 April 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2025.
- ^ a b c "Woman author dies here. Mrs. Anna M. Fitch, wife of Thomas Fitch, orator". The Los Angeles Times. 16 April 1904. p. 15. Retrieved 5 February 2025 – via Newspapers.com. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ a b "Anna Fitch". nevadawomen.org. Nevada Women's History Project. Retrieved 5 February 2025.
- ^ a b "Tom and Anna Fitch short biographies". Reno Gazette-Journal. 26 February 1881. p. 3. Retrieved 5 February 2025 – via Newspapers.com. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Twain, Mark (1972). The Works of Mark Twain: Roughing it. Iowa Center for Textual Studies. p. 679. ISBN 978-0-520-08498-8. Retrieved 5 February 2025.
- ^ Twain, Mark (1872). Roughing It. Wikisource. Retrieved 5 February 2025. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Twain, Mark (14 February 2011). Roughing It. University of California Press. p. 679. ISBN 978-0-520-94806-8. Retrieved 5 February 2025.
- ^ Collins, Thomas P. (2007). Stage-struck Settlers in the Sun-kissed Land: The Amateur Theatre in Territorial Prescott, 1886-1903. Wheatmark, Inc. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-58736-783-0. Retrieved 5 February 2025.
- ^ Who's who in the Pacific Southwest: A Compilation of Authentic Biographical Sketches of Citizens of Southern California and Arizona. Times-mirror Printing & Binding House. 1913. p. 141. Retrieved 5 February 2025. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
| International | |
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| National | |
- 1840 births
- 1904 deaths
- Writers from California
- 19th-century pseudonymous writers
- Pseudonymous women writers
- 19th-century American novelists
- 19th-century American poets
- 19th-century American dramatists and playwrights
- 19th-century American newspaper editors
- 19th-century American women writers
- American women novelists
- American women poets
- American women dramatists and playwrights
- American women newspaper editors
- People from Shoreham, Vermont