Florence McLandburgh (April 22, 1850 – June 3, 1934) was an American writer of fiction and poetry, sometimes using the pseudonym McLandburgh Wilson.
Florence McLandburgh | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 22, 1850 Chillicothe, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | June 3, 1934 (aged 84) Akron, Ohio, U.S. |
| Other names | McLandburgh Wilson |
| Occupation | Writer |
Early life and education
editMcLandburgh was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, and lived in Chicago after 1863,[1] the daughter of Henry McLandburgh and Susan Reynolds McLandburgh.[2] Her older brother John was also a writer.[3] She graduated from Dearborn Female Seminary in 1868.[4]
Career
editMcLandburgh's 1873 short story "The Automaton-Ear" is considered an early example of science fiction by an American woman,[5][6] as it concerns an ear trumpet that can replay every sound ever made.[7][8] Her 1876 collection of stories includes other tales with science fiction themes.[1] One reviewer said the collection exhibited McLandburgh's "imaginative power", but that several of the stories were "too fanciful."[9]
Poor health prevented McLandburgh from further fiction writing.[10] Later in life she wrote poetry, often with humorous, patriotic or military themes,[11][12] published in newspapers and magazines under the pseudonym "McLandburgh Wilson."[13][14] She is credited with writing the lines "The optimist sees the doughnut, but the pessimist sees the hole."[15]
Publications
edit- "Possessed" (1871, later revised and retitled "The Feverfew")
- "Boydell: A Sketch" (1871)[16]
- "The Christmas Tale of Paint Valley" (1873)[17]
- "The Automaton-Ear" (1873)[18]
- The Automaton Ear, and other sketches (1876)[19]
- "Memorial Day" (1905, poem)[20]
- "Back to the Land (1906, poem)[21]
- "A Tale of Dead Love" (1906, poem)[22]
- "Motherhood's Chant" (1914, poem)
- "Let the Women Be Heard"
- "The March of Woman Suffrage"[23]
- The Little Flag on Main Street (1917, collected poems)[24]
- "Rheims Cathedral" (1918, poem)[25]
- "Hot Weather Poem" (1918, poem)[26]
Personal life
editMcLandburgh died in 1934, at the age of 83, in Akron, Ohio.[27] Her gravestone in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago is shaped like a book resting on a pillow.[5]
References
edit- ^ a b Sims, Michael (2017-09-05). Frankenstein Dreams: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Science Fiction. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 99–101. ISBN 978-1-63286-041-5.
- ^ 1860 United States federal census, via Ancestry.
- ^ Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John (1888). Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography. D. Appleton. p. 138.
- ^ Annual catalogue of the Dearborn Female Seminary, Chicago, for the academic year 1867-68; via Ancestry.
- ^ a b Selzer, Adam (2022-08-09). Graceland Cemetery: Chicago Stories, Symbols, and Secrets. University of Illinois Press. pp. 250–251. ISBN 978-0-252-05342-9.
- ^ Ashley, Michael (2015-03-18). The Feminine Future: Early Science Fiction by Women Writers. Courier Dover Publications. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-486-79023-7.
- ^ "SFE: McLandburgh, Florence". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
- ^ Scholl, Lesa; Morris, Emily (2022-12-15). The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women's Writing. Springer Nature. p. 389. ISBN 978-3-030-78318-1.
- ^ "Minor Book Notices". The Literary World: A Monthly Review of Current Literature. 7: 5. June 1876.
- ^ Van de Grift, Josephine (1920-07-24). "Poor Health Fails to Check Ambitions of Girl Writer". The Akron Beacon Journal. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-07-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Roberts, Adam (2022-05-12). Classic Science Fiction Stories. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-5290-6908-2.
- ^ Broadhurst, Jean; Rhodes, Clara Lawton (1919). Verse for patriots, to encourage good citizenship. New York Public Library. Philadelphia London : J.B. Lippincott Company.
- ^ Wienen, Mark W. Van (2002). Rendezvous with Death: American Poems of the Great War. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-07059-4.
- ^ "Items Interesting to the Feminine Sex". The Champaign County News. 1907-05-25. p. 9. Retrieved 2024-07-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "McLandburgh Wilson". Oxford Reference. doi:10.1093/acref/9780191843730.001.0001/q-oro-ed5-00016554 (inactive 2024-07-28). Retrieved 2024-07-08.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2024 (link) - ^ McLandburgh, Florence (September 1871). "Boydell: A Sketch". The Lakeside Monthly. 6: 270–277.
- ^ McLandburgh, Florence. “The Christmas Tale of Paint Valley.” Appleton's 10 (1873): 806-11.
- ^ McLandburgh, Florence. "The Automaton Ear" Scribner's Monthly (May 1873).
- ^ McLandburgh, Florence. The automaton ear, and other sketches (Chicago: Jansen, McClurg and Co., 1876).
- ^ Wilson, Mclandburgh (1905-05-01). "Memorial Day". The Atlantic. ISSN 2151-9463. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
- ^ Wilson, McLandburgh (1906-12-28). "Back to the Land". The Brandon Union. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-07-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Wilson, McLandburgh (1906-08-30). "A Tale of Dead Love". Wilkes-Barre Times. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-07-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Wilson, McLandburgh. "The March of Woman Suffrage". Exhibit, "Women in Politics", University of Montana Library. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
- ^ "The Little Flag on Main Street". Birmingham Post-Herald. 1918-06-16. p. 32. Retrieved 2024-07-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Rheims Cathedral". The Morning Union. 1918-03-28. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-07-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Have Your Neighbors Gone?". The Wichita Eagle. 1918-07-08. p. 6. Retrieved 2024-07-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Obituary for Florence McLandbnrgh". The Akron Beacon Journal. 1934-06-04. p. 23. Retrieved 2024-07-08 – via Newspapers.com.
External links
edit- Florence McLandburgh at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- A recording of McLandburgh's story "The Automaton Ear" (1873), at LibriVox
- Elizabeth Caroline Picherit, "'The romance of the telephone': women, disability, and technology in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century literature" (PhD dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 2020); a recent dissertation considering McLandburgh's 'The Automaton Ear" (1873) alongside Elizabeth Stuart Phelps' "The Chief Operator" (1909)