Frances Irene Burge Griswold

Frances Irene Burge Griswold
"A woman of the century"
Born	Frances Irene Burge April 28, 1826 Wickford, Rhode Island, U.S.
Died	November 11, 1900(1900-11-11) (aged 74) Wickford, Rhode Island, U.S.
Pen name	F. Burge Smith, Mrs. S. B. Phelps, Fan-Fan
Occupation	author
Language	English
Nationality	American
Notable works	Bishop and Nanette series, Miriam's Reward, Fan-Fan Stories, Asleep
Spouse	Allen N. Smith, Elias Griswold ​ (m. 1885)​
Relatives	Roger Williams, Samuel Cranston, William Brenton, Jahleel Brenton

Frances Irene Burge Griswold (after first marriage, Frances Irene Burge Smith; pen names, F. Burge Smith, Mrs. S. B. Phelps, Fan-Fan; April 28, 1826 – November 11, 1900) was an American author. She wrote Sunday school tales and other semi-religious works, among which were Bishop and Nanette series, and Miriam's Reward.^[1] Other popular writings were the Fan-Fan Stories and Asleep.^[2]

Early years[]

Frances Irene Burge was born in Wickford, Rhode Island, April 28, 1826. She was a daughter of Rev. Lemuel Burge and Elizabeth Frances Shaw. She grew up in the St Paul's Narragansett Church, of which her father was for 20 years the rector,^[3] having thrice been elected to that pastorate. Griswold descended, on her father's side, from the Mucklestons of Muckleston Manor, Oswestry, and on her mother's side, from the Brentons of Hammersmith, England.^[4] She was a descendant of Roger Williams, Governor Samuel Cranston, and Governor William Brenton, and collaterally related to Admiral Jahleel Brenton, of the British Navy.^[2]

Career[]

Griswold began to publish her literary work in 1853, and, by 1893, had published 32 volumes, besides innumerable fugitive articles for newspapers and other periodicals. Perhaps the most widely known of her books are the Bishop and Nanette series, which, as a carefully prepared exposition of the Rook of Common Prayer, were used in advanced classes of Episcopal Sunday schools; Sister Eleanor's Brood, a story of the lights and shadows of a country clergyman's family life, in which the gentle, optimistic nature of the author works in its best vein, and which is understood to figure, under a thin veil of fiction, the actual experience of her mother, and the third book, Asleep, to whose pages so many have turned for comfort in bereavement. Griswold was an ardent Episcopalian, and the church was always important to her. Her Christmas and Easter poems represented her most finished poetic work.^[4]

Personal life[]

Griswold married twice. After the death of her first husband, Allen N. Smith, of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, she married, in 1885, one of her distant relatives, Judge Elias Griswold, of Maryland (or of Washington). Her last book, entitled Old Wickford, the Venice of America, was published this year by The Young Churchman Company, of Milwaukee.^[2]

Judge Griswold passed the latter days of his life in Brooklyn, New York, the home through many years of Mrs. Griswold's family, where she continued to reside. Most of her books were written under the name of "F. Burge Smith",^[4] and some under "Mrs. S. B. Phelps",^[5] though her favored nom de plume was "Fan-Fan". She died at Wickford, on Sunday, November 11, 1900.^[2]

Selected works[]

• Miriam's Reward
• Elm tree tales, 1856
• Nina : or, Life's caprices : a story founded upon fact, 1861
• Asleep, 1871
• Sister Eleanor's brood, 1872
• The bishop and Nannette, 1874
• Asleep; words of comfort to the bereaved, 1876
• Old Wickford : the Venice of America, 1900

References[]

Attribution[]

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Adams, Oscar Fay (1904). A Dictionary of American Authors (Public domain ed.). Houghton, Mifflin. p. 159.
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Churchman Company (1900). The Churchman. 82 (Public domain ed.). Churchman Company.
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Moulton. p. 443.

Bibliography[]

• Carty, T.J. (3 December 2015). A Dictionary of Literary Pseudonyms in the English Language. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-135-95585-4.

External links[]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Woman of the Century/Frances Irene Burge Griswold

• Works by Frances Irene Burge Griswold at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Frances Irene Burge Griswold at Internet Archive