A New England Nun and Other Stories. By: Mary E. Wilkins: Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman (October 31, 1852 - March 13, 1930) was a prominent 19th-centur

By Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

Book Overview

Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman (October 31, 1852 - March 13, 1930) was a prominent 19th-century American author She was born in Randolph, Massachusetts on October 31, 1852, to Eleanor Lothrop and Warren Edward Wilkins, who originally baptized her as "Mary Ella". Freeman's parents were orthodox Congregationalists, causing her to have a very strict childhood. Religious constraints play a key role in some of her works. LIST OF STORIES. A New England nun.--A village singer.--A gala dress.--The twelfth guest.--Sister Liddy.--Calla-lilies & Hannah.--Wayfaring couple.--A poetess.--Christmas Jenny.--Pot of gold.--Scent of the roses.--A solitary.--Gentle ghost.--A discovered pearl.--A village Lear.--Amanda & love.--Up Primrose hill.--Stolen Christmas.--Life everlastin'.--Innocent gamester. Louisa.--Church mouse.--Kitchen colonel.--The revolt of "Mother She was born in Randolph, Massachusetts on October 31, 1852, to Eleanor Lothrop and Warren Edward Wilkins, who originally baptized her as "Mary Ella". Freeman's parents were orthodox Congregationalists, causing her to have 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 attended Mount Holyoke College (then, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary) in South Hadley, Massachusetts, for one year, from 1870-71. 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. She moved in with a friend 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. Immediately after, she firmly established her name as "Mary E. Wilkins Freeman", which she asked Harper's to use on all of her work.The couple built a home in Metuchen, where Freeman was known as a local celebrity for her writing, despite having occasionally published satirical fictional representations of her neighbors. Her husband, who suffered from alcoholism and an addiction to sleeping powders, was committed to the New Jersey State Hospital for the Insane in Trenton, and the two legally separated a year later.After his death in 1923, he left the majority of his wealth to his chauffeur and only one dollar to his former wife. In April 1926, Freeman became the first recipient of the William Dean Howells Medal for Distinction in Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She suffered a heart attack and died in Metuchen on March 15, 1930, at age 77. She was interred in Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. Freeman began writing stories and verse for children while still a teenager to help support her family and was quickly successful. When the supernatural caught her interest, the result was a group of short stories which combined domestic realism with supernaturalism and these have proved very influential. Her best known work was written in the 1880s and 1890s while she lived in Randolph. She produced more than two dozen volumes of published short stories and novels. She is best known for two collections of stories, A Humble Romance and Other Stories (1887) and A New England Nun and Other Stories (1891). Her stories deal mostly with New England life and are among the best of their kind. Freeman is also remembered for her novel Pembroke (1894), and she contributed a notable chapter to the collaborative novel The Whole Family (1908).

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1542356741
• ISBN13: 9781542356749
• Release Date: January 2017
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

A book I return to over and over.

I'm a big fan of Mary Wikins Freeman. I have over the years collected all of her books of short stories...this is one is my favorites and I have read it over and over again. It is a little collection of stories about people who have found themselves alone..and what making peace with and surrendering to that state of being brings into their lives. The gentle simplicity of their world written by Ms Freeman in her beautiful style, draws you in and keeps you thinking about these characters long after the story is over. My copy of this book is a first edition, over 100 years old now and is so fragile I have to treat it with kid gloves.... so I am very happy to see a reprinting of these stories in paperback form so I can enjoy reading them over and over again for may more years to come.

Wonderful Collection of Stories

This is the best collection of stories I've read since Three Lives, by Gertrude Stein. Very moving, beautiful stories of 19th-century women.