Esmeralda Boyle (September 29, 1840 – April 18, 1928) was an American author and poet, best known for her book Biographical Sketches of Distinguished Marylanders (1877).[1]
Esmeralda Boyle | |
|---|---|
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| Born | September 29, 1840  |
| Died | April 18, 1928 (aged 87) |
Life and career edit
Esmeralda Boyle was born on September 29, 1840, in Washington, D.C., one of four daughters and five children of US Navy Commodore Junius Ignatius Boyle. She was born at the Boyle country residence of Shamrock Hill, on the site of the present day Glenwood Cemetery.[1][2][3][4]
Like her parents, Boyle was part of Washington's social elite. Future US President James A. Garfield wrote of her in his diary after meeting her on a social occasion in 1873: "[She] is beautiful, and has published two volumes of poems, which give much promise of future achievements."[5]
In 1874, Boyle founded the Literary Society of Washington - called merely "The Literary" in elite circles - with Olive Risley Seward and Sara Carr Upton. The Society membership drew from the women and men of the Washington elite, including Garfield, and its first meeting was in the back parlor of Boyle's mother's home at 723 21st St NW.[1][6][7]
Boyle wrote several volumes of poetry, some biographical works, including the first life story of Francis Scott Key,[8][9] and pieces for numerous publications, including The Army and Navy Journal, The Galaxy, The Hesperian, The Overland Monthly, Out West, and The St. Louis Magazine. She also wrote a society column in the Washington Capital newspaper.[5]
Boyle never married, but she had been engaged to John Hay.[10]
For the last decade and a half of her life, she lived in Grand Island, Nebraska, near where some of her relations had settled. In Nebraska, she taught French and Spanish and worked in a land office. She died there on April 18, 1928, at the age of 87.[1][10]
Bibliography edit
- Thistledown 1871
- The Story of Felice 1872
- Songs of Land and Sea 1875
- The Image Breaker 1875
- Biographical Sketches of Distinguished Marylanders 1877
- Father John McElroy, the Irish Priest 1878
- Saint Cecilia's Gates 1890
- Something About the Letterkins 1900
References edit
- ^ a b c d Roberts, Kim (2020). By broad Potomac's shore: great poems from the early days of our nation's capital. ISBN 978-0-8139-4474-6. OCLC 1150858698.
- ^ Lantz, Emily Emerson (December 13, 1925). "Biographies are Hobbies of Baltimore Man". Baltimore Sun. p. Part 2 Section 2 page 13.
- ^ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Glenwood Cemetery (PDF).
- ^ Watson, Boyle (1919). "John Boyle, United Irishman and His American Descendants". The Journal of the American-Irish Historical Society. 18.
- ^ a b Garfield, James A. (James Abram) (1967). The diary of James A. Garfield. Internet Archive. [East Lansing] Michigan State University. pp. 180–181. ISBN 978-0-87013-169-1.
- ^ Huntington, Frances Carpenter (1966). "Ladies of "The Literary"". Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. 66/68: 205–215. ISSN 0897-9049. JSTOR 40067256.
- ^ Nicolay, Helen (1934). Sixty years of the Literary society,/. Washington, D.C. hdl:2027/wu.89099360257.
- ^ "Esmeralda Boyle | Nebraska Authors". nebraskaauthors.org. Retrieved 2021-05-29.
- ^ Menil, Alexander Nicolas De (1904). The Literature of the Louisiana Territory. St. Louis News Company. p. 351.
- ^ a b "Death Comes While Asleep". Grand Island Herald. April 20, 1928.