May Alden Ward

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May Alden Ward, ca. 1892. MAY ALDEN WARD A woman of the century (page 758 crop).jpg
May Alden Ward, ca. 1892.

May Alden Ward (March 1, 1853 - January 14, 1918) was an American author known for her biographies of such writers as Petrarch and Dante.

Petrarch 14th-century Italian scholar and poet

Francesco Petrarca, commonly anglicized as Petrarch, was a scholar and poet of Renaissance Italy who was one of the earliest humanists. His rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited with inventing the 14th-century Renaissance. Petrarch is often considered the founder of Humanism. In the 16th century, Pietro Bembo created the model for the modern Italian language based on Petrarch's works, as well as those of Giovanni Boccaccio, and, to a lesser extent, Dante Alighieri. Petrarch would be later endorsed as a model for Italian style by the Accademia della Crusca.

Contents

Biography

She was born May Alden in Mechanicsburg, Ohio, [1] one of three children of Prince William Alden (a merchant and banker) and Rebecca (Neal) Alden. [2] [3] She was a descendant of Captain John Alden, who came to America on the Mayflower. [2] She early developed an interest in literature and languages and by the age of 16 was contributing articles to a Cincinnati periodical. [2]

Mechanicsburg, Ohio Village in Ohio, United States

Mechanicsburg is a village in Champaign County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,644 at the 2010 census.

John Alden Mayflower passenger and New World colonist

Capt. John Alden Sr. was a crew member on the historic 1620 voyage of the Pilgrim ship Mayflower. Rather than return to England with the ship, he stayed at what became Plymouth Colony. He was hired in Southampton, England, as the ship's cooper, responsible for maintaining the ship's barrels. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact. He married fellow Mayflower passenger Priscilla Mullins, whose entire family perished in the first winter.

<i>Mayflower</i> Famous ship of the 17th century

The Mayflower was an English ship that transported the first English Puritans, known today as the Pilgrims, from Plymouth, England, to the New World in 1620. There were 102 passengers, and the crew is estimated to have been about 30, but the exact number is unknown. The ship has become a cultural icon in the history of the United States. The Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact prior to leaving the ship and establishing Plymouth Colony, a document which established a rudimentary form of democracy with each member contributing to the welfare of the community. There was a second ship named Mayflower, which made the London to Plymouth, Massachusetts, voyage several times.

She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1872 at the age of 19 and a year later married William G. Ward, who held various academic positions over his career including history professor at Baldwin University near Cleveland [4] and later English literature professor at Syracuse University in New York and at Emerson College in Boston. [1] [2]

Ohio Wesleyan University

Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) is a private liberal arts university in Delaware, Ohio. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five – a consortium of Ohio liberal arts colleges. Ohio Wesleyan has always admitted students irrespective of religion or race and maintained that the university "is forever to be conducted on the most liberal principles."

Baldwin Wallace University university in Berea, Ohio

Baldwin Wallace University (BW) is a private, independent liberal arts and sciences university in Berea, Ohio, offering bachelor's and master's degrees, certificates and professional education programs. The university was founded in 1845 as Baldwin Institute by Methodist businessman John Baldwin. Eventually the school merged with nearby German Wallace College in 1913 to become Baldwin-Wallace College. In 2012, to more accurately reflect the expanded breadth of BW’s undergraduate and graduate academic programs, Baldwin-Wallace College officially became Baldwin Wallace University.

Syracuse University University located in Syracuse, New York, United States

Syracuse University is a private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. The institution's roots can be traced to the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded in 1831 by the Methodist Episcopal Church in Lima, New York. After several years of debate over relocating the college to Syracuse, the university was established in 1870, independent of the college. Since 1920, the university has identified itself as nonsectarian, although it maintains a relationship with The United Methodist Church.

Ward traveled for two years in Europe to continue her study of Italian, French, and German literature. [1] In 1887, she published a life of Dante, followed four years later by a life of Petrarch. [1] Reviewers praised these books for their skillful synthesis of the existing scholarship, [5] and the New York Times singled out Ward's lively, clear prose style and historian's instinct. [2] Author William Dean Howells commented that her work removed "the stain and whitewash of centuries" to reveal the underlying historical truth. [2] Her subsequent book on John Ruskin, Leo Tolstoy, and Thomas Carlyle, Prophets of the Nineteenth Century, was hailed as masterly. [2]

William Dean Howells author, critic and playwright from the United States

William Dean Howells was an American realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of The Atlantic Monthly, as well as for his own prolific writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day" and the novels The Rise of Silas Lapham and A Traveler from Altruria.

John Ruskin 19th-century English writer and art critic

John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, as well as an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy.

Leo Tolstoy Russian writer, author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. He received multiple nominations for Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906, and nominations for Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902 and 1910, and his miss of the prize is a major Nobel prize controversy.

Ward also lectured on French and German literature and became a popular speaker on the women's club circuit. [1]

In the late 1890s, Ward and her family moved to Massachusetts, where she served as president of various organizations including the New England Women's Club (succeeding the poet Julia Ward Howe in that role), [3] the New England Woman's Press Association, and the Cantabrigia women's club. [2] She was also a charter member of the Authors' Club of Boston and one of the Massachusetts state commissioners for the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904.

New England Womens Club

The New England Women's Club of Boston, Massachusetts, was the one of the two earliest women's clubs in the United States, having been founded a couple of months after Sorosis in New York City.

Julia Ward Howe 20th-century American abolitionist, social activist, and poet

Julia Ward Howe was an American poet and author, best known for writing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". She was also an advocate for abolitionism and was a social activist, particularly for women's suffrage.

She was killed in an accident when the car she was riding in on her way home from an evening lecture collided with an electric streetcar in Boston. [3]

Books

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Willard, Frances E., and Mary A. Livermore, eds. "May Alden Ward". In A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-Seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life. Moulton, 1893.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Howe, Julia Ward, and Mary Hannah Graves, eds. Representative Women of New England, pp. 47-50.
  3. 1 2 3 "Mrs May Alden Ward Accidentally Killed." Cambridge Chronicle, January 19, 1918.
  4. ↑ Galpin, W. Freeman. Syracuse University: Vol. 1: The Pioneer Days. Syracuse University Press, 1952, p. 77.
  5. ↑ Ward, May Alden. Old Colony Days. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1897, pp. 281-82.
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