Catharine Sedgwick (1789 - 1867)

Catharine Sedgwick

Catharine Maria Sedgwick was a successful American novelist writer of the first half of the 19th century.

Catharine was the daughter of Theodore Sedgwick, a lawyer, congressman and later senator and state supreme court justice. She was one of the most prolific and respected American novelists of the period, writing six novels, eight works for children, two biographies, and more than 100 short prose stories. The famous writer Edgar Allan Poe reviewed her work quite favorably.

Sedgwick wrote the novels Redwood (1824), Hope Leslie (1827), Clarence (1830), and The Linwoods (1835), her last novel, "Married or Single?" was published in 1857. Her works in particular raise questions about the relationship between nurture and management, and the key role of women in shaping the emerging nation.

Catherine Sedgwick was also active in the New York Women's Prison Association from its inception in 1854 until her death.