Lydia Howard Sigourney (1791–1865,) born Lydia Howard Huntley, was an American poetaster. Her sentimental and pious verses were immensely popular in the early-to-mid-19th century, winning her the title “the Mrs. Hemans of America.” Also known as “the sweet singer of Hartford,” she was one of the first American women to prosper at a literary career.
Born in Norwich, Connecticut, Sigourney worked as a schoolteacher and devoted her life to writing after marriage. She relied on sentimental conventions of moral and religious themes; death and piety were her most popular subjects.
Sigourney wrote some 67 books and a thousand articles, notably Letters to Young Ladies (1833,) Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse (1815,) The Square Table (1819,) The Farmer and the Soldier (1833,) Pocahontas, and Other Poems (1841,) The Voice of Flowers (1846,) The Weeping Willow (1847,) Olive Leaves (1852,) and Past Meridian (1854.)
In addition to editing religious and adolescent publications, she was also a pioneer in the cause of higher education for women. Her popularity did not survive into the 20th century.
Sigourney’s autobiography is Letters of Life (1866.) Gordon Haight wrote the biography Mrs. Sigourney: The Sweet Singer of Hartford (1930.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Lydia H. Sigourney
Teachers should be held in the highest honor. They are the allies of legislators; they have agency in the prevention of crime; they aid in regulating the atmosphere, whose incessant action and pressure cause the life-blood to circulate, and to return pure and healthful to the heart of the nation.
—Lydia H. Sigourney
Topics: Teaching
Observe how soon, and to what a degree, a mother’s influence begins to operate! Her first ministration for her infant is to enter, as it were, the valley of the shadow of death, and win its life at the peril of her own! How different must an affection thus founded be from all others!
—Lydia H. Sigourney
Topics: Mother
To attain excellence in society, an assemblage of qualifications is requisite: disciplined intellect, to think clearly, and to clothe thought with propriety and elegance; knowledge of human nature, to suit subject to character; true politeness, to prevent giving pain; a deep sense of morality, to preserve the dignity of speech; and a spirit of benevolence, to neutralize its asperities, and sanctify its powers.
—Lydia H. Sigourney
Topics: Society
Regularity in the hours of rising and retiring, perseverance in exercise, adaptation of dress to the variations of climate, simple and nutritious aliment, and temperance in all things are necessary branches of the regimen of health.
—Lydia H. Sigourney
Topics: Health
We speak of educating our children. Do we know that our children also educate us?
—Lydia H. Sigourney
Topics: Parents
Prosperity, alas! is often but another name for pride.
—Lydia H. Sigourney
Topics: Prosperity
Keep aloof from sadness, says an Icelandic writer, “for sadness is a sickness of the soul.” Life has, indeed, many ills, but the mind that views every object in its most cheering aspect, and every doubtful dispensation as replete with latent good, bears within itself a powerful and perpetual antidote. The gloomy soul aggravates misfortune, while a cheerful smile often dispels those mists that portend a storm.
—Lydia H. Sigourney
Say to mothers, what a holy charge is theirs; with what a kingly power their love might rule the fountains of the newborn mind.
—Lydia H. Sigourney
Topics: Mother
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