Marriage of Grace Greenwood

Sarah Jane Clarke, a New Yorker by birth, married Philadelphian Leander K. Lippincott on October 17, 1853. They settled in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, in Beaver County, just northwest of Pittsburgh. Sarah Jane Lippincott was better known by her pen name, Grace Greenwood. Though she was incredibly prolific — she first drew national attention in 1844 with a poem in the New York Tribune — she never wrote about her married life.

The couple founded The Little Pilgrim, a monthly magazine for children, with "Grace Greenwood" as its editor, though it ended in 1868. He contributed his own stories and at least one book is credited to both Mr. and Mrs. Lippincott (the Greenwood pseudonym was never meant to hide her identity, and she occasionally published poems side-by-side, one with her real name, and one with her pen name).

Mrs. Lippincott was very interested in politics and lost her job at Godey's Lady's Book after publishing an anti-slavery essay in The National Era. She often spoke out for international copyright law, noting it would be "an immeasurable benefit to the native genius." In response to the idea that authors should write only for the pleasure of writing, she wrote that if America wants writers to labor and sweat over high quality writing, they must be paid a "sweating wage." What little wages she got, however, "Grace Greenwood" was happy to keep for herself.

However, when she married in 1853 at 30 years old, she soon learned that a married authoress plays a different role. Beginning that year, her works were now copyrighted under the name of her husband. As Melissa J. Homestead notes, "although she was still an author, she was no longer a literary proprietor... Her 'sweating wages' legally belongded to her husband." In 1876, however, Leander Lippincott was indicted for land fraud and fled the country. Their marriage was apparently never happy and rumors spread he was not faithful.

*Some information for this post comes from Melissa J. Homestead's American Women Authors and Literary Property, 1822-1869.

Birth of Grace Greenwood

She was born Sara Jane Clarke on September 23, 1823; she became Sara Jane Lippincott after her marriage in 1853. The literary world would know her as Grace Greenwood. Though born in New York, her family soon moved to Pennsylvania where she attended the Greenwood Academy, the possible inspiration for her pen name.

She began writing in the 1840s, publishing poetry and children's stories. She later became an assistant editor of the highly-successful Godey's Lady's Book under Sarah Josepha Hale, before founding her own children's magazine with her husband in 1853. Though she often wrote on behalf of women's rights and abolitionism, Greenwood is mostly remembered for her highly sentimental fiction works aimed at girls.

One of her stories, "Bessie Raeburn's Christmas Adventure," follows a familiar pattern for early sentimental writing. The great revelation of the story comes on the birthday of one of the main characters, a young girl named Lily. She asks a servant-girl turned friend-of-the-family the date of her birthday. The girl, Mary, says she doesn't know because she never knew her parents or her origins. "I do not know exactly how old I am," she says, "but I think about fifteen."

"About fifteen!" repeated Mrs. Phillips, in a dreamy way, "and your name [is] Mary. John, our Mary would have been just about her age, could we have kept her; and do you know I fancy she would have looked very much like this young girl... I have an odd idea that she looks like our family, somewhat as I used to look; and, stranger still, like you, John... O John, John, tell me! Can she be! O blessed God! —"

She could not utter a word more, but she stretched out her trembling arms, and Mary crept into them and lay on her mother's breast, the long hunger of her heart satisfied at last!

"Yes, dear, this is our lost child, given back to us by a gracious God," said Mr. Phillips. But there was no need to tell her that; she knew all now. Kissing her darling, patting her head, and murmuring over her sweet pet names, as though Mary were still the baby girl she had lost.