Judith Sargent Murray

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JSM , writing around and after the American War of Independence, produced poetry, plays, periodical essays, and a sentimental novel published in instalments. A recent biographer puts her closer to the centre of debate about women's role in the new American republic than Mercy Otis Warren or Abigail Adams .
Skemp, Sheila L. Judith Sargent Murray. A Brief Biography with Documents. Bedford Books.
vii
Photograph of a three-quarter-length painting of Judith Sargent Murray by John Singleton Copley. Her pale skin and white satin dress contrast strongly with her her black shawl and dark background. She is seated, looking directly at the viewer though her body is turned a little away. Her right knee is raised; her elbows rest on the arms of her chair, and her right hand holds a basket of flowers. Her dark hair is pulled back and ornamented with a ribbon.

Milestones

1 May 1751

Judith Sargent (later JSM ) was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the eldest of eight children, only half of whom seem to have survived.
Harris, Sharon M., and Judith Sargent Murray. “Introduction”. Selected Writings of Judith Sargent Murray, edited by Sharon M. Harris and Sharon M. Harris, Oxford University Press, p. xv - xliv.
xv
Field, Vena Bernadette. Constantia: A Study of the Life and Works of Judith Sargent Murray, 1751-1820. University of Maine Press.
14
Skemp, Sheila L. Judith Sargent Murray. A Brief Biography with Documents. Bedford Books.
53, 191

October 1775

Judith Stevens (later JSM ) composed her earliest-dated extant writing (published in June 1794 in the Massachusetts Magazine): Reflections in the Manner of Hervey —Occasioned by the Death of an Infant Sister.
James Hervey was best known for Meditations among the Tombs.
Field, Vena Bernadette. Constantia: A Study of the Life and Works of Judith Sargent Murray, 1751-1820. University of Maine Press.
18
American National Biography. http://www.anb.org/articles/home.html.

February 1792-August 1794

JSM published a series of essays entitled The Gleaner in the Massachusetts Magazine.
Field, Vena Bernadette. Constantia: A Study of the Life and Works of Judith Sargent Murray, 1751-1820. University of Maine Press.
30

February 1798

JSM 's The Gleaner was collected in three volumes, by subscription (759 subscribers for 824 sets at a dollar a volume), as a money-raising venture.
Skemp, Sheila L. Judith Sargent Murray. A Brief Biography with Documents. Bedford Books.
104

1816

The year after her husband's death, JSM completed, edited, and published, as Records of the Life of the Rev. John Murray, the autobiography which he had left unfinished. It was her final literary work.
OCLC WorldCat. http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

6 July 1820

JSM died in Natchez, Mississippi, which, apparently, she still thought of not as her home but as a place of exile from Boston.
Harris, Sharon M., and Judith Sargent Murray. “Introduction”. Selected Writings of Judith Sargent Murray, edited by Sharon M. Harris and Sharon M. Harris, Oxford University Press, p. xv - xliv.
xliii
Skemp, Sheila L. First Lady of Letters. University of Pennsylvania Press.
378 and n25

Biography

Birth

1 May 1751

Judith Sargent (later JSM ) was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the eldest of eight children, only half of whom seem to have survived.
Harris, Sharon M., and Judith Sargent Murray. “Introduction”. Selected Writings of Judith Sargent Murray, edited by Sharon M. Harris and Sharon M. Harris, Oxford University Press, p. xv - xliv.
xv
Field, Vena Bernadette. Constantia: A Study of the Life and Works of Judith Sargent Murray, 1751-1820. University of Maine Press.
14
Skemp, Sheila L. Judith Sargent Murray. A Brief Biography with Documents. Bedford Books.
53, 191

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