Mary Moss

Mary Moss (September 24, 1864 – April 2, 1914) was an American author and literary critic.

Mary Moss
Photograph of Mary Moss, c. 1903
Photograph of Mary Moss, c. 1903
Born(1864-09-24)September 24, 1864
Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
DiedApril 2, 1914(1914-04-02) (aged 49)
Catania, Sicily, Italy
Resting placeSicily, Italy[1]
Notable works
  • Fruit Out of Season (1902)
  • A Sequence in Hearts (1903)
  • Julian Meldola (1903)

Biography

Mary Moss was born in Philadelphia to Dr. William Moss and Mary Noronha.[2] She was a member an old and prominent Philadelphia Jewish family.[3] Her great-grandfather was businessman Hyman Levy, in whose fur store John Jacob Astor was an apprentice.[4] During the American Civil War, her father served as a private soldier in the 16st Pennsylvania Volunteers and as a surgeon in the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment.[5][6] She was educated at a private school in Chestnut Hill.[7]

In 1900 Moss began writing for the Philadelphia Times and the Philadelphia Press, to which she contributed sketches on the Yiddish theater and other subjects.[8][9] From 1902 she was a prolific contributor of fiction and essays to various magazines. Her Jewish novel Julian Meldohla appeared in Lippincott's Magazine in 1903. Besides two other novels, Fruit Out of Season (1902) and A Sequence in Hearts (1903),[10] she contributed short stories and essays to the Atlantic Monthly, McClure's Magazine, The Bookman, Ainslee's Magazine, and Scribner's Magazine.[11][12]

On her success as an author, Moss said of herself:

"Facts about me are terribly meagre. If I had to live over again and knew this 'fame' was to be thrust upon me I'd mis-spend every Saturday afternoon, so as to have a dark past to draw on. As it is, I've alwavs lived here and never experienced anything in the least noteworthy. I've always had a great curiosity about people in general, and very little about people in particular, the neighbours for instance. Always, without knowing why, I simply had to explore different kinds of people, had to understand how they felt about things, how they lived. It was imperative, though I did not realise why, or feel conscious of any definite aim."[13]

She died at the Rindone Hospital in Catania, Sicily,[14] several weeks after falling suddenly ill with a brain tumor.[1]

Selected publications

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Adler, Cyrus (1905). "Moss, Mary". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 96.

  1. "Miss Sargeant Sails From Corsica Today". Harrisburg Telegraph. Vol. 83, no. 84. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. April 9, 1914. p. 6.
  2. Stern, Malcolm H. (1960). First American Jewish Families (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Ottenheimer Publishers. p. 214.
  3. "About People". The American Israelite. Vol. 60, no. 43. Cincinnati, Ohio. April 23, 1914. p. 7.
  4. Hirsch, Emil G., ed. (April 25, 1914). "Domestic News". The Reform Advocate. Chicago, Ill. p. 340.
  5. Wittenberg, Eric J. (2007). Rush's Lancers: The Sixth Pennsylvania Cavalry in the Civil War. Westholme. p. 236. ISBN 978-1-59416-032-5.
  6. "Biographical Sketches of Jews Prominent in the Professions, etc., in the United States". The American Jewish Year Book. American Jewish Committee. 6: 158–159. 1904–1905. JSTOR 23600100.
  7. Marquis, Albert Nelson, ed. (1910–1911). Who's Who in America. Vol. 6. Chicago: A. N. Marquis & Co. p. 1375.
  8. O'Sullivan, Beth (1997). "Moss, Mary (1864–1914)". In Hyman, Paula E.; More, Deborah Dash (eds.). Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Routledge. pp. 945–946.
  9. O'Sullivan, Beth (1999). "Mary Moss". Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
  10. "Writers of the Day". The Writer. 16 (10): 154. October 1903.
  11. Szold, Henrietta, ed. (1908). "A List of Articles of Jewish Interest". American Jewish Bibliography. Philadelphia: Jewish Public Society of America: 455.
  12. The Library Index to Periodicals. Vol. 1. New York. April 1905. p. 80.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  13. "Chronicle and Comment". The Bookman. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 18: 225–226. November 1903.
  14. National Archives and Records Administration (1914). Mary Moss. Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1835–1974. College Park, Maryland. p. 253 – via Ancestry.com.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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