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SUSANNA ROWSON
Author, actress, and educator, Susanna Haswell Rowson played an influential role in the arts and education of post-Revolutionary America. She was born in Portsmouth, England, on February 5, 1762. Her mother, Susanna Musgrave Haswell, died shortly after giving birth, and her father, William Haswell, a British naval officer, was appointed customs collector in Massachusetts. While abroad, he married Rachel Wood-ward, and in 1767 he retrieved his five-year-old daughter and brought her to live with them in Nantasket, Massachusetts.
The Revolution interrupted Rowson’s comfortable life. Her father remained a loyalist and faced increasing hostility; in 1778, the family was finally allowed to return to England, wearied and poor. Rowson’s love of books and learning had been nurtured in America, and she put those skills to use, it is believed, as a governess in the years that followed. She also tried her hand at prose and published her first novel, Victoria, in 1786. Dedicated to her patron, Georgiana Cavendish, duchess of Devonshire, this two-volume work established a pattern for Rowson’s didactic fiction. That year, she also married William Rowson, a merchant with musical talent who introduced her to theater performance.
Although she may have experimented with acting during this period, Rowson focused on writing in order to financially support herself and William. Her knowledge of the stage was set to poetry in A Trip to Parnassus; or, the Judgement of Apollo on Dramatic Authors and Performers, which appeared in 1788. She also published Poems on Various Subjects and a collection of tales titled The Inquisitor; or Invisible Rambler in 1788. An industrious writer, Rowson produced her second novel, Mary; or, The Test of Honour, the following year, published anonymously. This book instructed its readers on matters of virtue through a story about marriage, but it was poorly received by the critics.
In 1791, Rowson published two works of fiction, one of which would bring her literary attention. Mentoria; or, The Young Lady’s Friend, comprising letters from a governess to her former students, short moral tales, and an essay, expressed her developing concern for the education of women. This book was overshadowed by Charlotte: A Tale of Truth, a novel often described as the first American bestseller (the American edition appeared three years after the British edition). Charlotte (titled Charlotte Temple in later editions) is a moralistic treatment of the seduction of a teenaged girl; Rowson attested to this story’s authenticity in the subtitle, and she was believed by impressionable readers who sought to discover the real Charlotte. Rebecca; or, The Fille de Chambre, a novel that recalled Rowson’s own experiences in America, appeared in Britain in 1792 but, like Charlotte, found more popularity abroad.
Although Rowson’s writing began to bring her fame, she still struggled for fortune. In 1793, Rowson, her husband, and his younger sister moved to Philadelphia, where they joined the New Theater Company. During this time, Rowson achieved moderate success as an actress, and she composed songs, poems, and plays, most notably, Slaves in Algiers; or, A Struggle for Freedom. She also completed a four-volume novel, Trials of the Human Heart, in 1795. In 1796, the Rowsons joined the Federal Street Theater in Boston; within a year, however, the theater closed and the three were forced to seek other employment.
Beginning her third career at the age of thirty-five, Rowson opened the Young Ladies’ Academy in Boston in 1797. Her school offered affluent young women the chance to study an array of subjects from arithmetic and grammar to embroidery and music. Rowson’s position as teacher and headmistress offered her the financial and social stability for which she had long struggled. In 1798, she published Reuben and Rachel; or, Tales of Old Times, a novel that depicts the female experience in history.
Rowson’s school, which relocated many times in the Boston area, kept her very busy, and over the next decade, she completed a volume of poetry and a textbook. In 1811, she published A Present for Young Ladies, a compilation of her students’ work that promoted young women’s creativity and aptitude. Two years later, a long-awaited novel, Sarah; or, The Exemplary Wife, appeared. Rowson’s role as an educator, however, had become her foremost commitment, and she continued writing textbooks until her retirement in 1822.
Rowson died on March 2, 1824. Her intelligence and ambition left its mark on the literature, theater, and pedagogy of early America. The unlikely author of America’s first bestseller also bequeathed to her readers a sequel, Charlotte’s Daughter; or, The Three Orphans (later titled Lucy Temple), published posthumously in 1828. Like her previous work, this popular last novel revealed her advocacy of women’s moral and intellectual edification.
2004 Modern Library Paperback Edition
Introduction copyright © 2004 by Jane Smiley
Biographical note and reading group guide copyright © 2004 by
Random House, Inc.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. Published in the United States by Modern Library,
an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of
Random House, Inc., New York.
MODERN LIBRARY and the TORCHBEARER Design are registered trademarks of
Random House, Inc.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Rowson, Mrs., 1762–1824.
Charlotte Temple / Susanna Rowson; introduction by Jane Smiley.
p. cm.
1. British—New York (State)—New York—Fiction. 2. Illegitimate children—
Fiction. 3. Runaway teenagers—Fiction. 4. Teenage pregnancy—Fiction.
5. New York (N.Y.)—Fiction. 6. Teenage girls—Fiction. 7. Elopement—Fiction.
8. Seduction—Fiction. 9. Betrayal—Fiction. 10. Soldiers—Fiction. I. Title.
PS2736.R3C5 2004
813’.2—dc22
2003066519
Modern Library website address: www.modernlibrary.com
www.randomhouse.com
eISBN: 978-0-307-43077-9
v3.0
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