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
Born1826
Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.
DiedDecember 29, 1905
Charleston
Pen name
  • Motte Hall
  • Elma South
  • Ide Delmar
  • E. B. C.
NicknameEssie
Occupation
  • writer
  • poet
Genrecontributor to popular periodicals

Biography

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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

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  1. ^ Read 1855, p. 473.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Tardy 1870, p. 877.
  3. ^ a b c 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.
  4. ^ Cushing 1885, p. 125.
  5. ^ Sutherland 1988, pp. 89–93.
  6. ^ a b "Charleston, S. C., Dec. 29". The Washington Post. 30 December 1905. p. 9. Retrieved 13 January 2021 – via Newspapers.com.  

Attribution

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Bibliography

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