Biography of Lydia H. Sigourney

Lydia Howard Huntley was born September 1, 1791 in Norwich, Connecticut. She was the only daughter of the gardener Ezekial Huntley, and grew up on the estate of a widower, Jerusha Talcott Lanthrop. Lanthrop took her on as a protegee, encouraging her reading and writing in the years when she was out of school to help with her sick mother (“Lydia Huntley Sigourney”). 

In 1815, Sigourney published her first book, Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse. In 1819, she married Charles Sigourney, a widower who already had three children of his own. The family settled together in Hartford where she bore five children, only two of whom made it past infancy. Charles encouraged his wife to continue writing in her free time but asked that when she published her work, it was done anonymously (“Lydia Huntley Sigourney”). It wasn’t until her family faced financial hardship that she began publishing under her own name and gained enormous success. Sigourney’s published works soon became the main source of financial support for her family. 

According to a tally of her own making, she authored 56 books and hundreds of poems and essays. Sigourney’s works included prose sketches, didactic books, and poetry (Baym 2). She varied in the use of length and form in her poetry, covering many topics of social significance. 

Sigourney was a vocal advocate for many social causes such as temperance, peace, missionary societies, women’s education, Native American rights and institutionalized care for the disadvantaged (Baym 1). At the root of her writing style was a “Protestant perspective” that was reflected in much of her writing and advocacy (Baym 1). Though she still agreed that women’s place was meant to be domestic, she expanded on this definition by including teachers and literary spaces. Her role as an activist defied the stereotype that the public didn’t want to hear women in these discussions and it never deterred the popularity of her work (Baym 2). When Sigourney died, she was one of the best known woman poets in the United States. 

Works Cited

Baym, Nina. "Sigourney, Lydia (1791-1865), woman of letters and philanthropist." American National Biography. Oxford University Press. Date of    access 20 Feb. 2022, https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1601504

“Lydia Huntley Sigourney.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/lydia-huntley-sigourney.