Sara Hawks Sterling

Sara Hawks Sterling was an American schoolteacher and novelist.

Sara Hawks Sterling

Sterling specialized in fiction about historical and legendary figures, such as King Arthur, Robin Hood, and Anne Hathaway. Her novel Shakespeare's Sweetheart, published in 1905, is an early attempt to view William Shakespeare's life and romantic exploits from a female perspective.[1] Shakespeare's Sweetheart and A Lady of King Arthur's Court were both illustrated by Clara Elsene Peck.

Personal life

Sterling was born on March 4, 1874, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Dr. John and Mary Sterling.[2] She appears to have remained in Philadelphia, and never married.[1] According to her listing in the Woman's Who's who in America of 1914–1915, she was against women's suffrage;[3] however, her actual viewpoints regarding women's suffrage have never been concretely determined. She was a member of the Browning Society of Philadelphia, the Shakespeare Company, and the Dickens Fellowship.[3]

In addition to her writing, Sterling taught English at the Philadelphia High School for Girls from 1906 to 1912, and the West Philadelphia High School for Girls starting in 1912. She earned a bachelor of arts in teaching from the University of Pennsylvania in 1918, and was a member of the Women Teachers' Organization.[3]

She died December 26, 1936, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of pneumonia, which she caught after directing a Christmas play for the Philadelphia High School for Girls.[4][5] She is buried at Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Works
  • Hamlet's brides: a Shakespearean burlesque in one act (1900)
  • Shakespeare's sweetheart (1905)[1]
  • A Lady of King Arthur's Court: Being a Romance of the Holy Grail (1907)[6]
  • Robin Hood and his merry men (1921)[7]

References
  1. Scheil, Katherine (2018). Imagining Shakespeare's wife: the afterlife of Anne Hathaway. Cambridge University Press. pp. 122–124. ISBN 9781108416696.
  2. "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MWJ7-H62 : 19 February 2021), Sarah H Sterling in household of John Sterling, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district ED 82, sheet 148B, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,255,169.
  3. Woman's Who's who of America: a biographical dictionary of contemporary women of the United States and Canada. American Commonwealth Company. 1914. p. 779. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  4. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania and New Jersey, U.S., Church and Town Records, 1669-2013 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
  5. The Philadelphia Inquirer Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 29 Dec 1936, Tue Page 6
  6. Lupack, Alan (2007). The Oxford guide to Arthurian literature and legend. Oxford University Press. p. 257. ISBN 9780199215096.
  7. Catalog of copyright entries: part 1: books, group 1. Government Printing Office. 1922. p. 3350. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
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