Josephine Gallery, The.
Cary, Alice and Phoebe, editors. The Josephine Gallery. New York: Derby & Jackson, 1861.
4to.; eight color illustrations, each with tissue guard; facing pages offset; upper gutter cracked; a.e.g.; navy cloth; elaborately stamped in gilt.
Second edition, a new, deluxe edition of this collection of 28 stories, poems, memoirs and biographies devoted primarily to French women of note and edited by the Cary sisters, originally published by J.B. Lippincott & Co., in 1858. Named contributors include Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, Alexander H. Everett, Virginia F. Townsend, Marion Harland, Metta Victoria Victor, and T.B. Aldrich – but all of the other pieces—primarily biographical in content—are published without attribution. Subjects include Josephine, Caroline and Pauline Bonaparte, and Madame de Staël, among others.
Alice and Phoebe Cary were two of nine children born on an Ohio farm to Robert and Elizabeth Jessup Cary. They attended school sporadically, but managed to cultivate an appreciation for reading and writing. Even after the death of their mother and two sisters from tuberculosis, and the subsequent remarriage of their father to a discouraging stepmother, they managed to follow their literary pursuits. Both sisters published poetry in newspapers as adolescents; 14 year-old Phoebe’s piece ran in newspapers in Boston and Cincinnati, and 18 year-old Alice’s in the Cincinnati Sentinel. This early brush with literary immortality spurred them to submit more of their works which were printed in newspapers in the midwest and the east. Their work was good enough to attract the attention of Horace Greeley, Poe, and Whittier, who became a lifelong friend. In 1856 they moved to New York City together, quickly establishing themselves amid the literati there. Alice’s inspiration to write came from the monetary compensation she received for her submissions. Her poetry, while prolific, was not especially noteworthy. Phoebe, conversely, wrote less, but the pieces that she did publish were more praiseworthy. When not engaged in literary pursuits, both women devoted much time and effort to feminist causes. Alice was the first president of Sorosis, a women’s club in New York; and Phoebe was the assistant editor at Susan B. Anthony’s Revolution. Both sisters died in 1871; Alice in February from tuberculosis, Phoebe in July from hepatitis. (NAW Vol.1)
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