Introduction

About Mary Tappan Wright.

This account is largely reproduced from the Wikipedia article I wrote about the author at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Tappan_Wright.

     Mary Tappan Wright (1851-1916) was an American novelist and short story writer best known for her acute characterizations and depictions of academic life. She was the wife of classical scholar John Henry Wright and mother of utopian novelist Austin Tappan Wright and geographer John Kirtland Wright.
     Wright was born Mary Tappan December 18, 1851 in Steubenville, Ohio,¹ the daughter of Eli Todd Tappan, president of Kenyon College, and Lydia (McDowell) Tappan. She married, April 2, 1878, John Henry Wright, then an associate professor of Greek at Dartmouth College and later professor of classical philology and dean of the Collegiate Board of Johns Hopkins University, professor of Greek at Harvard University, and dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The couple had three children, Elizabeth Tappan Wright (who died young), Austin Tappan Wright, and John Kirtland Wright. They lived successively in Hanover, New Hampshire, Baltimore, Maryland and Cambridge, Massachusetts, aside from one period during which John was a professor at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, when they resided in Greece.² Wright’s husband died November 25, 1908, and she herself died August 28, 1917 in Cambridge.³ She was survived by her two sons.
     Wright’s first published story was “As Haggards of the Rock” (May 1890); it and other early stories were collected in her first book, A Truce, and Other Stories (1895). None of her subsequent short stories were gathered into book form during her lifetime.
     Much of her fiction, including her four novels, dealt with American university life. Of these the earliest, Aliens (1902), attracted much attention when it appeared for its portrait of contemporary northerners in a racially tense Southern college town. The Tower (1906) was described as “a love story placed against the life of a college community taken from the faculty side and told with deep understanding and the most delicate art”⁴ and The Charioteers (1912) as “a story of the social life and environment of college professors and their families.”⁵
     Wright’s second novel, The Test (1904), the story of a wronged young woman, was something of a departure, and received mixed reviews for what some perceived as its unpleasant subject matter and unsympathetic characters, though it was generally praised as well-written.^{6, 7, 8}
     Wright’s first four books were published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, the fifth being issued by D. Appleton & Company. About half of her short pieces appeared in Scribner’s Magazine; others appeared in The Youth's Companion, Christian Union, The Outlook, The Independent, Harper’s Magazine, and Harper’s Weekly.
     In her writing Wright was praised as having “a keen sense of humor, good descriptive powers, a good working knowledge of human nature, an effective style” and the ability to “tell a story well.”⁹ Her skill at characterization was also noted.¹⁰
     Wright’s papers, including correspondence and original manuscripts and fragments, are found in various archival collections of the Harvard University Library and the Houghton Library at Harvard College. An early commonplace book from 1870-77, containing mostly poetry, is in the Stone-Wright family papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Footnotes

1. Lexikon der Frau in zwei Bünden. Band II, I-Z. Zürich, Encyclios Verlag 1954, p. 1662.
2. “Among the Authors” – article, New York Times, July 14, 1912, p. BR412.
3. Lexikon der Frau in zwei Bünden. Band II, I-Z. Zürich, Encyclios Verlag 1954, p. 1662. Other sources do not provide a date, and give the year of her death as 1916.
4. “Scribner Spring Books” – display advertisement, New York Times, April 7, 1906, p. BR207.
5. “Among the Authors” – article, New York Times, July 14, 1912, p. BR412.
6. “A Study of Conscience” – review, New York Times, April 30, 1904, p. BR296.
7. “Some February Books” – article, New York Times, January 30, 1904, p. BR66.
8. Peattie, Elia W. “More Plays by Mr. Yeats” – review of these and other works, Chicago Daily Tribune, April 2, 1904, p. 13.
9. “A Study of Conscience” – review, New York Times, April 30, 1904, p. BR296.
10. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge. New York, The Encyclopedia American Corporation, 1920, p. 570.

General references

American Authors and Books. 1640 to the present day. Third revised edition. By W.J. Burke and Will D. Howe. Revised by Irving Weiss and Anne Weiss. New York: Crown Publishers, 1972.
Adams, Oscar Fay A Dictionary of American Authors. Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1897.
Coyle, William, ed. Ohio Authors and Their Books. Biographical data and selective bibliographies for Ohio authors, native and resident, 1796-1950. Cleveland: World Publishing Co., 1962.
The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge. New York: Encyclopedia Americana Corporation, 1920, p. 570.
Leonard, John William, ed. Woman’s Who’s Who of America. A biographical dictionary of contemporary women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. Edited by John William Leonard. New York: American Commonwealth Co., 1914.
Lexikon der Frau in zwei Bünden. Band II, I-Z. Zürich, Encyclios Verlag 1954, p. 1662.
Wallace, W. Stewart. A Dictionary of North American Authors Deceased before 1950. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1951.
Warner, Charles Dudley, ed. Biographical Dictionary and Synopsis of Books Ancient and Modern. Akron, OH: Werner Co., 1902.
Who Was Who in America. Volume 1, 1897-1942. Chicago: A. N. Marquis Company, 1943.
Who’s Who in America, a Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of the United States, 1903-1905. Chicago: A. N. Marquis & Company, 1903, p. 1658.
Who’s Who in New England . 2nd ed. Chicago, A. N. Marquis & Company, 1916. p. 1186.

Bibliography of Known Published Writings.

About MTW | Note

The following listing is as complete as current knowledge allows. It was compiled on the basis of the online OCLC database of the holdings of numerous libraries around the country and the world, the venerable literary magazine index The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature and its online counterpart The Reader's Guide Retrospective (which however erroneously attributes to Wright one story, "Limitations," written by Edith Wyatt), and the invaluable electronic historical compendium of Amerian magazines American Peridicals Series Online, 1740-1900. All of these resources provide comparatively comprehensive coverage of prominent publications while neglecting to a greater or lesser degree the more obscure. It is more than likely that some of Wright's published tales have eluded the net, and remain to be rediscovered by some enterprising researcher.
It should be noted that a considerable number of unpublished stories, along with drafts and fragments, are also preserved among Wright's papers at the Harvard University Library.

Novels

Aliens (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1902)
The Test (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1904)
The Tower (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1906)
The Charioteers (D. Appleton & Company, 1912)

Collections

A Truce, and Other Stories (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1895)
Pro Tempore, and Other Stories (Fleabonnet Press, 2007)
Dead Letters, and Other Pieces (Fleabonnet Press, 2008)
Beginning Alone, and Other Stories (Fleabonnet Press, forthcoming)

Short stories

“As Haggards of the Rock” (Scribner's Magazine, v. 7, no. 5, May 1890)
“Beginning Alone” (The Youth's Companion, v. 63, no. 36, Sep. 4, 1890, v. 63, no. 37, Sep. 11, 1890, v. 63, no. 38, Sep. 18, 1890, v. 63, no. 39, Sep. 25, 1890, v. 63, no. 40, Oct, 2, 1890, v. 63, no. 41, Oct. 9, 1890, v. 63, no. 42, Oct. 16, 1890, v. 63, no. 43, Oct. 23, 1890)
“A Truce” (Scribner's Magazine, v. 9, no. 1, Jan. 1891)
“A Fragment of a Play, With a Chorus” (Scribner's Magazine, v. 9, no. 5, May 1891)
“Divided Allegiances” (Christian Union, v. 45, no. 6, Feb. 6, 1892, v. 45, no. 7, Feb. 13, 1892, v. 45, no. 8, Feb. 20, 1892, v. 45, no. 9, Feb. 27, 1892)
“A Lad—Dismissed” (The Outlook, v. 48, no. 2, Jul. 8, 1893, v. 48, no. 3, Jul. 15, 1893, v. 48, no. 4, Jul, 22, 1893, v. 48, no. 5, Jul. 29, 1893, v. 48, no. 6, Aug. 5, 1893, v. 48, no. 7, Aug. 12, 1893)
“The Gray Fur Rug” (The Youth's Companion, no. 3470, Nov. 23, 1893)
“Deep as First Love” (Scribner's Magazine, v. 15, no. 2, Feb. 1894)
“A Portion of the Tempest” (Scribner's Magazine, v. 15, no. 6, Jun. 1894)
“His Last” (The Youth's Companion, no. 3498, Jun. 7, 1894, no. 3499, Jun. 14, 1894; reprinted in A Boy Lieutenant, ca. 1905, as “His Last Offence, A Story of College Life”)
“From Macedonia” (Scribner's Magazine, v. 16, no. 4, Oct. 1894)
“Three Fires at Redmont” (The Youth's Companion, no. 3550, Jun. 6, 1895)
“Cunliffe” (Scribner's Magazine, v. 20, no. 3, Sep. 1896)
“The Key of the Fields” (Scribner's Magazine, v. 23, no. 2, Feb. 1898)
“An Exception” (The Independent, v. 51, no. 2616, Jan. 19, 1899; reprinted in Massachusetts Ploughman and New England Journal of Agriculture, v. 58, no. 20, Feb. 11, 1899)
“The Best Laid Plans” (projected for publication in The Youth's Companion in 1900, but not published there; possibly not published at all)
“A Day Together” (Scribner's Magazine, v. 29, no. 1, Jan. 1901)
“Dead Letters” (The Independent, v. 53, no. 2753, Sep. 1901)
“A Sacred Concert” (Scribner's Magazine, v. 34, no. 1, Jul. 1903)
“Vox” (Harper's Monthly Magazine, v. 107, no. 641, Oct. 1903)
“Pro Tempore” (Scribner's Magazine, v. 39, no. 6, Jun. 1906)
“The Mountain” (Harper's Weekly, v. 51, no. 2615, Feb. 2, 1907)
“Asphodel” (Scribner's Magazine, v. 46, no. 4, Oct. 1909)

Reviews

“The Iron Woman” (review of the novel by Margaret Deland) (North American Review, v. 194, no. 673, Dec. 1911)

A Note on the Text.

About MTW | Bibliography

     Mary Tappan Wright’s known published short stories fall into two groups; twelve that initially saw print in Scribner’s Magazine, issued by her principle publisher Charles Scribner’s Sons, and ten which appeared in other publications. Of the former, the first six were gathered together by Scribner’s to form Wright’s first book, A Truce, and Other Stories (1895), and the rest were reprinted by the present publisher in our earlier Wright collection Pro Tempore, and Other Stories (2007).
     In compiling the Fleabonnet Press editions of Mary Tappan Wright’s stories, it has been my practice to adopt the treatment they might have received had this been done during her lifetime. In A Truce Scribner’s utilized only stories previously published in its own magazine, and arranged them according to artistic or aesthetic considerations rather than the order of original publication. The title of the collection was based on that of its most lengthy component story. Had Scribner’s issued a second collection similar principles would undoubtedly have applied, so I prepared the actual second collection on that basis, again using only Scribner’s Magazine stories. Of the ten remaining tales, the first six form a discrete group originally published in religious or family-oriented magazines, while the last four appeared in general interest periodicals similar to Scribner’s. I felt it best to make each group the basis of a separate collection, and since I had the stories in the latter readier for the press I am issuing it first. To round out the collection and bring the number of pieces in it up to the customary six, I have added two items of miscellanea—a book review by Wright of the Margaret Deland novel The Iron Woman, which as far as I have been able to determine was the last short piece she published, and a story by her son Austin Tappan Wright, afterwards famous as the author of the utopian masterpiece Islandia. This story, a “what if” tale positing an invasion of an unprepared America in 1915, is unique in that it is its author’s sole published short story and only work of fiction published during his lifetime (Islandia having been issued posthumously).
     The materials in this collection are arranged in the order of their original publication, and coincidentally by publisher as well; first, two stories from The Independent; second, two from the Harper’s magazines; and last, the two bonus items, respectively from The North American Review and The Atlantic Monthly. The overall title is as usual taken from the longest story, “Dead Letters,” a tale of Dulwich, Wright’s fictional college town and favorite venue—in my opinion Wright’s best Dulwich story, whose protagonist, the inimitable Evelyn Edmunds, is a heroine worthy of Jane Austen.
     The texts of the stories are by and large taken from their first magazine appearances, photocopied from the bound volumes or microfilm copies of the journals held in Green Library at Stanford University or from PDF reproductions in American Periodicals Series Online 1740-1900 (usually abbreviated APS). These copies were then scanned into Microsoft Word, and the files produced closely compared against the sources to ensure fidelity. While great care has been taken to eliminate errors introduced to the text through the scanning process, some may remain; the fault and responsibility for these are the present editor’s. Spelling, grammar and punctuation, where they differ from current standards, have ordinarily been left untouched. Obvious printing errors have been silently corrected. Typography has been brought into accord with modern practice—this has chiefly meant the elimination of superfluous spacing around exclamation points, question marks, and quotation marks, and the reduction of ultra-long dashes.
     In a few instances I have emended the received texts. In the case of “An Exception” an early reprint in a Massachusetts newspaper served as a comparison for correction of the original text—the house style of The Independent had certain editorial quirks regarding spelling that were non-standard even in its era, notably the abbreviation of words ending with “-ough” to “-o” — the reprint standardized the text, and I have followed its example in both “An Exception” and “Dead Letters,” the other story herein originally published in The Independent, but for which no such secondary text was available. I have also silently expanded one date heading in the diary-format story “The Mountain,” abbreviated in the source text, bringing it into accord with all other date headings in that story; the abbreviation in this instance was self-evidently made to accommodate an illustration. Finally, I have brought the quotation mark scheme used for “1915?” into conformity with standard American practice; The Atlantic Monthly, the magazine in which it was originally published, utilized the British practice.
     With these exceptions what you are about to read should be identical to that which first came under the eye of Wright’s earliest readers one century ago.

—Brian Kunde, March 21, 2008.

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1st web edition posted 4/2/2008
This page last updated 4/2/2008.

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