BIOGRAPHIES

Griswold, Rufus Wilmot, and Stoddard, R. H. “Lydia H. Sigourney.” In The Female Poets of America, pp. 91-101. 1873. Reprint. New York: Garrett Press, 1969.

A discussion of Sigourney's life and works prefixing a selection of her poetry.

Haight, Gordon S. Mrs. Sigourney: The Sweet Singer of Hartford. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1930, 201 p.

Critical biography of Sigourney that seeks to explain both her reputation as “America's leading poetess” during her lifetime as well as the subsequent neglect of her work.

Hale, Sarah Josepha. “Sigourney, Lydia Huntley.” In Woman's Record; or, Sketches of All Distinguished Women from the Creation to A.D. 1854, pp. 782-84. 1855. Reprint. New York: Source Book Press, 1970.

A sketch of Sigourney's life and literary career followed by extracts from her work.

Kilcup, Karen L. “Lydia Howard Huntley Sigourney (1791-1865).” In Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographic Sourcebook, edited by Denise D. Knight, pp. 361-67. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997.

Brief biographical study of Sigourney, along with a review of her major works' themes and a bibliography of primary and secondary materials.

CRITICISM

Bode, Carl. “The Sentimental Muse.” In his The Anatomy of American Popular Culture: 1840-1861, p. 188-200. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1959.

Examines the reasons for Sigourney's immense popularity in her day and offers a negative assessment of the lasting value of her work.

———, ed. “Document 34: Glorious Columbia.” In American Life in the 1840s, pp. 279-82. Documents in American Civilization Series, edited by Hennig Cohen and John William Ward. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Co., 1967.

Discusses Sigourney's patriotic poem “Our Country” in its historical context.

De Jong, Mary G. “Lydia Howard Huntley Sigourney (1791-1865).” In Legacy 5, No. 1 (Spring 1988): 35-43.

Briefly discusses Sigourney's life and political and social commitments, and surveys Sigourney's critical reception in the twentieth century.

Fetterley, Judith. “Lydia Sigourney (1791-1865).” In Provisions: A Reader from 19th-Century American Women, edited by Judith Fetterley, pp. 105-16. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985.

Prefaces Sigourney's short story “The Father” with a short analysis and biography.

Green, David Bonnell. “William Wordsworth and Lydia Huntley Sigourney.” In The New England Quarterly XXXVII, No. 4 (December 1964): 527-31.

An account of Sigourney's acquaintance and correspondence with William Wordsworth.

Hogue, William M. “The Sweet Singer of Hartford.” In Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church XLV, No. 1 (March 1976): 57-77.

Explores Sigourney's evangelical Episcopalianism as evidenced in her poetry.

Jordan, Philip D. “The Source of Mrs. Sigourney's ‘Indian Girl's Burial’.” In American Literature 4, No. 3 (November 1932): 300-05.

Notes Sigourney's familiarity with journals published in the American West.

Kramer, Aaron. The Prophetic Tradition in American Poetry: 1835-1900. Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1968, 416 p.

Contains references to Sigourney's positions on secession, the slavery question, and the plight of American Indians.

Okker, Patricia. “Sarah Josepha Hale, Lydia Sigourney, and the Poetic Tradition in Two Nineteenth-Century Women's Magazines.” In American Periodicals 3 (1993): 32-42.

Contends that, contrary to general critical opinion, the poetry that Hale and Sigourney published during their time as editors of women's magazines reveals powerful feminine poetics that attempted to glorify rather than restrict women's poetic achievements.

Petrino, Elizabeth A. “‘Feet so precious charged’: Dickinson, Sigourney, and the Child Elegy.” In Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 13, No. 2 (Fall 1994): 317-38.

Sets Dickinson's child elegies against those of Sigourney and other sentimental writers, claiming that Dickinson rejected the sentimentality, materialism, and religiosity of her Victorian forebearers.

Watts, Emily Stipes. “Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1797-1865).” In The Poetry of American Women from 1632 to 1945, pp. 83-97. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1977.

Discusses Sigourney's writings in their historical context, particularly as they distinguish themselves in concept and theme from similar works written by contemporary male authors.

Additional coverage of Sigourney's life and career is contained in the following source published by the Gale Group: Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vols. 1, 42, 73, 183.