36. Celia Thaxter — A Picturesque Poet Turns to Crime Writing
Celia Thaxter
After witnessing the aftermath of a notorious double murder, one of 19th century America’s most popular poetry and prose writers took up crime writing in her Atlantic Monthly essay A Memorable Murder. The subject of this week’s mini episode, Celia Thaxter grew up on a tiny island off the coast of New England, where her father was the lighthouse keeper. Later, after becoming Boston’s literary darling, she hosted friends such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthore, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Sarah Orne Jewett at her father’s hotel on Appledore Island.
Discussed in this episode:
Betsy and Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace
White Island in the Isles of Shoals
"Land-locked" by Celia Thaxter
“A Memorable Murder” by Celia Thaxter (The Atlantic Monthly)
The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve
An Island Garden by Celia Thaxter and illustrated by Childe Hassam