Catherine Anne Warfield
Encyclopedia
Catherine Anne Warfield (1816–1877) was an American writer of poetry
and fiction
in the South
. Together with her sister Eleanor Percy Lee
, she was first of the published authors in the Percy family. The most noted authors have been William Alexander Percy
and Walker Percy
of the twentieth century. Warfield's first novel The Household of Bouverie (1860), published anonymously, was very popular; and she published eight more under her own name.
, Catherine was the oldest daughter of Sarah Percy and her second husband Major Nathaniel Ware, who had married in 1814. (Sarah's first husband was the older Judge John Ellis, with whom she had a son, Thomas George Ellis, and daughter, Mary Jane Ellis. He died in 1808.) Sarah Percy was from a prominent Southern family whose members had a vulnerability to mental illness.
Catherine and her sister Eleanor were raised primarily in Philadelphia after their mother’s hospitalization there for severe post-partum depression following Eleanor's birth (Sarah was 39 then). Sarah never fully recovered. Together with their half-sister Mary Jane Ellis, the Ware sisters attended the French-speaking academy of Mme. Aimee Sigoigne, a refugee from Haiti
after its revolution.
Catherine began writing poetry with her younger sister Eleanor at an early age, and it reflects their sadness about their mother's condition. Following their mother's death in 1836, the sisters published two volumes together under the byline, "The Two Sisters of the West": The Wife of Leon (1843) and The Indian Chamber, And Other Poems (1846). Their father encouraged their writing and had commissioned printers in Cincinnati and New York, respectively, for the volumes. The poetry met with moderate success. Today it is criticized as par for its time, relying heavily on many gothic and sentimental contrivances.
physician
and Thoroughbred
breeder
, Elisha Warfield
. The couple settled in his Kentucky home, where they had six children together.
After their mother's death, the sisters next suffered the death in 1844 of their half-sister Mary Jane Ellis LaRoche (who appeared to have suffered from post-partum depression and lingering mental illness for several years) and later their half-brother Thomas Ellis. After Eleanor died of yellow fever in 1849, Warfield ceased writing for several years, as she was stricken with melancholy.
In the mid-1850s, Catherine was encouraged to start writing again by her niece Sarah Ellis
, already a successful novelist. In 1860 Warfield published anonymously as "A Southern Lady," The Household of Bouverie, a gothic fiction in two volumes. It achieved great popular success. The story tells of a young orphan who comes from England
to live with her grandmother in America
. The young woman encounters her grandfather Erastus Bouverie, long presumed dead, living in secret on the second floor. He has become a reclusive mad man attempting to create a youth-restoring potion. The story deals with their relationship, and the unfolding narrative of a dark and torrid family history. Warfield was praised as "Shakespearean
," and one contemporary writer said, "Of living female authors, we can openly class Mrs. Warfield with George Sand
and George Eliot
." The novel met with strong reception.
After the Civil War
, Warfield published eight more novels, all under her own name. The two most popular were Ferne Fleming (1877) and its sequel The Cardinal’s Daughter (1877); however, no work gained the same degree of success as her first novel.
She died in 1877.
Walker Percy
's novel Lancelot bears a resemblance to The Household of Bouverie. Despite Walker's disclaimer, both the Percy biographer Bertram Wyatt-Brown
and his nephew William Armstrong Percy, III
believe that he based the novel, so different from his others, on his predecessor's work.
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
in the South
South
South is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.South is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to east and west.By convention, the bottom side of a map is south....
. Together with her sister Eleanor Percy Lee
Eleanor Percy Lee
Eleanor Percy Lee, born Eleanor Percy Ware , was an American writer of the South who co-authored two books of poetry with her sister Catherine Anne Warfield, which were published in the 1840s...
, she was first of the published authors in the Percy family. The most noted authors have been William Alexander Percy
William Alexander Percy
William Alexander Percy , was a lawyer, planter, and poet from Greenville, Mississippi. His autobiography Lanterns on the Levee became a bestseller. His father LeRoy Percy was the last United States Senator from Mississippi elected by the legislature...
and Walker Percy
Walker Percy
Walker Percy was an American Southern author whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is best known for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans, Louisiana, the first of which, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1962...
of the twentieth century. Warfield's first novel The Household of Bouverie (1860), published anonymously, was very popular; and she published eight more under her own name.
Biography
Born in Natchez, MississippiNatchez, Mississippi
Natchez is the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. With a total population of 18,464 , it is the largest community and the only incorporated municipality within Adams County...
, Catherine was the oldest daughter of Sarah Percy and her second husband Major Nathaniel Ware, who had married in 1814. (Sarah's first husband was the older Judge John Ellis, with whom she had a son, Thomas George Ellis, and daughter, Mary Jane Ellis. He died in 1808.) Sarah Percy was from a prominent Southern family whose members had a vulnerability to mental illness.
Catherine and her sister Eleanor were raised primarily in Philadelphia after their mother’s hospitalization there for severe post-partum depression following Eleanor's birth (Sarah was 39 then). Sarah never fully recovered. Together with their half-sister Mary Jane Ellis, the Ware sisters attended the French-speaking academy of Mme. Aimee Sigoigne, a refugee from Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
after its revolution.
Catherine began writing poetry with her younger sister Eleanor at an early age, and it reflects their sadness about their mother's condition. Following their mother's death in 1836, the sisters published two volumes together under the byline, "The Two Sisters of the West": The Wife of Leon (1843) and The Indian Chamber, And Other Poems (1846). Their father encouraged their writing and had commissioned printers in Cincinnati and New York, respectively, for the volumes. The poetry met with moderate success. Today it is criticized as par for its time, relying heavily on many gothic and sentimental contrivances.
Marriage and family
In January 1833 at the age of sixteen, Catherine married Robert Elisha Warfield, a son of the prominent Lexington, KentuckyLexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and Thoroughbred
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
breeder
Horse breeding
Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in domesticated horses...
, Elisha Warfield
Elisha Warfield
Elisha Warfield, Jr. was an American physician and a Thoroughbred racehorse owner and breeder whom Thoroughbred Heritage calls "one of the most important early figures in Kentucky racing and breeding."...
. The couple settled in his Kentucky home, where they had six children together.
After their mother's death, the sisters next suffered the death in 1844 of their half-sister Mary Jane Ellis LaRoche (who appeared to have suffered from post-partum depression and lingering mental illness for several years) and later their half-brother Thomas Ellis. After Eleanor died of yellow fever in 1849, Warfield ceased writing for several years, as she was stricken with melancholy.
Literary career
In the 1830s, Catherine spent her summers in Natchez with her sister and recently relocated mother, who was staying with her son Thomas George Ellis, from her first marriage. In the 1840s, together the two sisters composed and refined the poetry which they later published through printers commissioned by their father. There was quite a literary community in Natchez, and other women encouraged the sisters' work.In the mid-1850s, Catherine was encouraged to start writing again by her niece Sarah Ellis
Sarah Dorsey
Sarah Dorsey was an American novelist and historian.-Biography:Born Sarah Anne Ellis to Thomas George Percy Ellis and Mary Malvina Routh in Natchez, Mississippi, she became a novelist and historian. She was known as the "companion" of Jefferson Davis, to whom she proved a great boon in his...
, already a successful novelist. In 1860 Warfield published anonymously as "A Southern Lady," The Household of Bouverie, a gothic fiction in two volumes. It achieved great popular success. The story tells of a young orphan who comes from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to live with her grandmother in America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The young woman encounters her grandfather Erastus Bouverie, long presumed dead, living in secret on the second floor. He has become a reclusive mad man attempting to create a youth-restoring potion. The story deals with their relationship, and the unfolding narrative of a dark and torrid family history. Warfield was praised as "Shakespearean
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
," and one contemporary writer said, "Of living female authors, we can openly class Mrs. Warfield with George Sand
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
and George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
." The novel met with strong reception.
After the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Warfield published eight more novels, all under her own name. The two most popular were Ferne Fleming (1877) and its sequel The Cardinal’s Daughter (1877); however, no work gained the same degree of success as her first novel.
She died in 1877.
Walker Percy
Walker Percy
Walker Percy was an American Southern author whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is best known for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans, Louisiana, the first of which, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1962...
's novel Lancelot bears a resemblance to The Household of Bouverie. Despite Walker's disclaimer, both the Percy biographer Bertram Wyatt-Brown
Bertram Wyatt-Brown
Bertram Wyatt-Brown is a noted historian of the South in the United States. He is the Richard J. Milbauer Professor Emeritus at the University of Florida, where he taught from 1983-2004; he also taught at Case Western University for nearly two decades...
and his nephew William Armstrong Percy, III
William Armstrong Percy, III
William Armstrong Percy, III, is an American professor, historian, encyclopedist, and gay activist. He taught from 1968 at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and started publishing in gay studies in 1985....
believe that he based the novel, so different from his others, on his predecessor's work.
Percy Family writers
- Sarah DorseySarah DorseySarah Dorsey was an American novelist and historian.-Biography:Born Sarah Anne Ellis to Thomas George Percy Ellis and Mary Malvina Routh in Natchez, Mississippi, she became a novelist and historian. She was known as the "companion" of Jefferson Davis, to whom she proved a great boon in his...
- Kate FergusonKate FergusonKate Ferguson was a notorious "southern belle", who hailed from two of the South’s most prominent families. She was born Catherine Sarah Lee, to the southern poet Eleanor Percy Lee and William Henry Lee, cousin of General Robert E. Lee. Her life was mired in scandal, mostly through her husband,...
- Eleanor Percy LeeEleanor Percy LeeEleanor Percy Lee, born Eleanor Percy Ware , was an American writer of the South who co-authored two books of poetry with her sister Catherine Anne Warfield, which were published in the 1840s...
- Walker PercyWalker PercyWalker Percy was an American Southern author whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is best known for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans, Louisiana, the first of which, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1962...
- William Alexander PercyWilliam Alexander PercyWilliam Alexander Percy , was a lawyer, planter, and poet from Greenville, Mississippi. His autobiography Lanterns on the Levee became a bestseller. His father LeRoy Percy was the last United States Senator from Mississippi elected by the legislature...
External links
- A Southern Lady, The Household of Bouverie, New York: Derby & Jackson, 1860
- Catherine Ann Warfield, Ferne Fleming, T. B. Peterson, 1877
- Catherine Ann Warfield, The Cardinal's Daughter, T. B. Peterson, 1877