Essie B. Cheesborough
Essie B. Cheesborough (pen names, Motte Hall, Elma South, Ide Delmar, and E. B. C.; 1826 – December 29, 1905) was an American writer who contributed to several popular periodicals during South Carolina's antebellum period.[1] Cheesborough's style was characterized as fluent and easy. She did not pander to the sensational, but was natural, truthful, and earnest, never egotistical, or guilty of "fine writing". She never published a book, although her writings on various subjects, political, literary, and religious, would fill several volumes.[2]
Esther Blythe Cheesborough | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1826 Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Died | December 29, 1905 Charleston |
| Pen name |
|
| Nickname | Essie |
| Occupation |
|
| Genre | contributor to popular periodicals |
Biography
Esther (nickname, "Essie") Blythe Cheesborough was born in Charleston, South Carolina, 1826.[3] Her father was John W. Cheesborough, a prominent shipping merchant of Charleston. Her mother, Elera, was a native of Liverpool, England.[2] She had two brothers and two sisters.[3]
Cheesborough was educated by private tutors in Philadelphia and in her native city, Charleston.[2][3]
She started writing at an early age under the pen names of "Motte Hall", "Elma South", "Ide Delmar", and the initials, "E. B. C."[2][4]
She was a regular contributor to the Southern Literary Gazette, published in Charleston, and edited by the Rev. William C. Richards; and when Paul Hayne assumed the editorship, she continued her contributions. She was also a contributor to Russell's Magazine, and to various other Southern literary journals, including Land we Love.[2]
After the civil war, she was a regular contributor to the Watchman, a weekly journal, edited and published in New York City by the Rev. Dr. Charles Deems, of North Carolina, with which journal she was connected until its discontinuance.[2] She also contributed to Family Journal, Wood's Household Magazine, and Demorest's.[5] She was the last co-worker of the poets, Paul Hamilton Hayne and Henry Timrod.[6]
Essie Cheesborough died at her home in Charleston, December 29, 1905.[6]
References
- Read 1855, p. 473.
- Tardy 1870, p. 877.
- Sutherland, Daniel E. (1983). "The Rise and Fall of Esther B. Cheesborough: The Battles of a Literary Lady". The South Carolina Historical Magazine. 84 (1): 22–34. ISSN 0038-3082. JSTOR 27567778. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
- Cushing 1885, p. 125.
- Sutherland 1988, pp. 89–93.
- "Charleston, S. C., Dec. 29". The Washington Post. 30 December 1905. p. 9. Retrieved 13 January 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
Attribution
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Cushing, William (1885). Initials and Pseudonyms: A Dictionary of Literary Disguises (Public domain ed.). T. Y. Crowell & Company.- This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Read, Thomas Buchanan (1855). The Female Poets of America: With Portraits, Biographical Notices, and Specimens of Their Writings (Public domain ed.). E.H. Butler.
- This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Tardy, Mary T. (1870). Southland Writers: Biographical and Critical Sketches of the Living Female Writers of the South. With Extracts from Their Writings (Public domain ed.). Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger.
Bibliography
- Sutherland, Daniel E. (1 June 1988). The Confederate Carpetbaggers. LSU Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-1470-4.