H. MARION STEPHENS (1823

H. MARION STEPHENS (1823 – 1858)

Actress-turned-writer Harriet Marion Stephens appeared on stage under the name "Mrs. Rosalie Somers" before abandoning acting in favor of a literary career. Her early work appeared in periodicals. For example, after the death of Edgar Allan Poe in 1849, she contributed a poetic eulogy for him to the February, 1850, issue of Godey's Lady's Book. The last lines of her memorial of Poe, around whom rumors of adultery and debt had circled during his lifetime, read:

Admit our dove
So worn and tempest-riven!
Be all his faults forgiven!
Calm be his rest in heaven,
Whose soul was love!

Harriet Stephens’s published volumes include Home Scenes and Home Sounds ( Boston 1853) and the novel Hagar, the Martyr (1854). She died in 1858 in East Hampton, Maine.

Another portrait appears in:

H. Marion Stephens. Home Scenes and Home Sounds (1854), frontispiece.

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H. Marion Stephens. Hagar the Martyr, or, Passion and Reality (1855), frontispiece.	H. MARION STEPHENS (1823 – 1858) Actress-turned-writer Harriet Marion Stephens appeared on stage under the name "Mrs. Rosalie Somers" before abandoning acting in favor of a literary career. Her early work appeared in periodicals. For example, after the death of Edgar Allan Poe in 1849, she contributed a poetic eulogy for him to the February, 1850, issue of Godey's Lady's Book. The last lines of her memorial of Poe, around whom rumors of adultery and debt had circled during his lifetime, read: Admit our dove So worn and tempest-riven! Be all his faults forgiven! Calm be his rest in heaven, Whose soul was love! Harriet Stephens’s published volumes include Home Scenes and Home Sounds ( Boston 1853) and the novel Hagar, the Martyr (1854). She died in 1858 in East Hampton, Maine. Another portrait appears in: H. Marion Stephens. Home Scenes and Home Sounds (1854), frontispiece. NEXT>