Women Playwrights

Susanna Haswell Rowson

Susanna Rowson is probably best known in American literature as the author of the novel Charlotte: A Tale of Truth, considered to be America’s first bestseller. However, she was an early American playwright as well. Born in England in 1762, the daughter of a British naval officer, Susanna Haswell came to the American colonies when she was five, following her father’s commission to serve the Crown in Massachusetts. During the American Revolution, the Tories imprisoned her and her family until 1778 when they were freed in a prisoner exchange and forced to return to England.

Rowson, Susanna. Slaves in Algiers; or, A struggle for Freedom. Philadelphia: Printed for the Author, by Wrigley and Berriman, 1794.

From the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature.

As a young refugee in London, Susanna gravitated to the theatre, attempting to earn a living by writing songs for the stage. Though not formally educated, she had read extensively and by 1786 began pursuing a writing career as a novelist. In that same year, she married William Rowson, an actor, necessitating that she travel with a troupe of actors and become an actress herself. She continued to write novels to supplement the meager income earned from the theatre. In 1793, Thomas Wignell recruited the Rowsons to travel to Philadelphia as actors for his new theatre company. On this stage, Susanna Rowson became quite an accomplished actress, performing thirty-five different roles in her first season.

Autograph manuscript, signed, of “A Dialogue Spoken by Three Little Misses,” by Mrs. [Susanna] Rowson. No date.

From the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature.

With her flair for both writing and drama, Susanna naturally turned to playwriting. The strong feminist leanings in her first and only surviving play, Slaves in Algiers (1794), caused controversy when produced in Philadlephia. The Rowsons eventually moved on to Boston, and when her theatrical career began to subside, Susanna Rowson turned to educating young women by opening her Young Ladies’ Academy, the first such school in Boston. Susanna Rowson continued writing until her death in 1824.

From the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature.

At right: Watercolor miniature portrait of Susanna Rowson. No date.

[Ritchie], Anna Cora [Ogden] Mowatt. Fashion; or, Life in New York. New York: Samuel French, 1849.

From the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature.

Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt Ritchie

Born in 1819, Anna Cora Ogden wrote, staged, and acted in family theatrical productions from an early age, fostering her lifelong love of the theatre. With her marriage at the age of fifteen to James Mowatt, writing became a leisurely pursuit until financial disaster and her husband’s illness forced the young woman to use her creative talents to supplement the family’s income. The resulting comedy of manners Fashion; or, Life in New York met with immediate popularity when it opened at the Park Theatre in New York in 1845.

[Ritchie], Anna Cora [Ogden] Mowatt. Autobiography of an Actress; or, Eight Years on the Stage. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1854.

That same year, Anna Mowatt made her professional acting debut as Pauline in The Lady of Lyons, embarking on a financially rewarding and successful career. She started touring with her own acting company in both America and England, and in 1847, Anna wrote another play, Armand: The Child of the People, including it in her company’s repertoire. Following the death of James Mowatt in 1851, her retirement from the theatre, and an unhappy marriage and separation from William Foushee Ritchie, Anna eventually settled in England in 1865, remaining there until her death in 1870.