Esther Saville Allen

American author

Samuel R. Allen

(m. 1859)

Esther Saville Allen (née, Saville; pen names, Winnie Woodbine, Etta Saville, Mrs. S. R. Allen; December 11, 1837 - July 16, 1913) was an American author of the long nineteenth century. In her day, Allen was likely the author of more works, both in prose and verse, than any other woman in Arkansas.^[1] She died in 1913.

Biography

Esther (nickname, "Etta") Saville was born in Honeoye, New York on December 11, 1837. Her parents were Joseph and Esther Redfern Saville, both from England. Her father contributed to British journals of his time. Before Esther Saville was ten years old, she made her first public effort in a poem, which was published. At the age of 12 years, she wrote for Morris and Willis a poem which they published in the "Home Journal." While studying in Western New York and Rushford, New York, she wrote and published many poems under the pen-name, "Winnie Woodbine."^[1]

Allen became a teacher in the public schools of western New York and continued to write for eastern papers, assuming her proper name, "Etta Saville." She moved to Illinois in 1857 and she taught in public schools there until she married in 1859. After her marriage to Samuel R. Allen, a lawyer in Erie, Illinois, all her literary works were published under the name of "Mrs. S. R. Allen." In 1872, she removed to Little Rock, Arkansas. Much of her work has been widely copied and recopied. Devoted to charity, organized and practical, her writings in that cause promoted the institution and development of useful work, or revived and reinvigorated it.^[1]

She died in Little Rock, Arkansas on July 16, 1913, and was buried next to her husband in the Little Rock National Cemetery. At the time, she was the only woman to be buried in the cemetery.^[2]

Selected works

Poems

"The Home Coming"^[3]
"Home Again", 1908^[4]

Short stories

"The French School"^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Willard & Livermore 1893, p. 19-20.
^ "OBITUARY. MRS. ETTA S. ALLEN CLAIMED BY DEATH". Daily Arkansas Gazette. 17 July 1913. p. 9. Retrieved 28 August 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Gilbert, Helen Josephine White (1910). "GREAT CELEBRATIONS. THE HOME COMING.". Rushford and Rushford People. H.J.W. Gilbert. p. 498. Retrieved 22 January 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ The Rushford Centennial, August 16-21, 1908: With Data and Reminiscences. The Committee. 1908. p. 193. Retrieved 27 August 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ Godey, Louis Antoine; Hale, Sarah Josepha Buell (1876). "THE FRENCH SCHOOL. BY WINNIE WOODBINE.". Godey's Magazine. Godey Company. p. 550. Retrieved 22 January 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

Bibliography

This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Moulton. p. 19.