Marguerite Merington

Marguerite Merington
Newspaper drawing of Merington
Born	1857 Stoke Newington, England
Died	May 20, 1951 (aged 94) New York City
Occupation	Author
Language	English

Marguerite Merington^[a] (1857 – May 20, 1951) was an English-born American author of short stories, essays, dramatic works, and biographies.^[1] For several years, she taught in Greek and Latin at the Normal College in New York before pursuing a career as an author.

Early life and education[edit]

Marguerite Merington was born in Stoke Newington,^[2] England, in 1857,^[3][4] the daughter of Elizabeth and Richard Whiskin Crawford Merington (1827-1901), a clerk in the Bank of England.^[5] Her aunt was Martha Merington, a British politician, notable as the first woman to serve as a Poor Law Guardian.

In January 1869^[6] she came with her parents to Buffalo, New York where she was educated at a convent. Even as a girl, she displayed dramatic talent, and often wrote and acted little parlor plays.^[7]

Career[edit]

For several years, she was instructor in Greek and Latin in the Normal College in New York. After resigning from this position, Merington pursued the career of a dramatic author. About 1889, E. H. Sothern proposed that Merington should write him a play, the leading character of which should be a captivating Irish gentleman. With a few suggestions from him, the play, Captain Lettarblair was written. Before it was performed, Joseph Jefferson, saw the manuscript and praised it highly. The play had a trial run at an authors' matinee in New York City, and was first presented August 16, 1892, at the Lyceum Theatre. Captain Lettarblair, produced by Daniel Frohman,^[2] brought in large audiences, was financially successful, and held a place in Sothern's repertoire.

Merington wrote other dramas, including Good-Bye, A Lover's Knot, and the libretto of a comic opera, Daphne, or the Pipes of Arcadia. Set to music by Arthur Bird, of London, it gained the prize of US$500 from the New York Conservatory of Music.^[7] After having served as the private secretary of Elizabeth Bacon Custer, Merington became the editor of The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of General George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth.^[8]

Death[edit]

Merington died on May 20, 1951, in her Manhattan home.^[9] Of her life she said: "There is absolutely nothing about me to be told, and that I never tell."^[7]

Selected works[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Attribution[edit]

• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Siegel-Cooper (1899). "American Women Play-Wrights, by Esther Singleton". Book Notes: A Monthly Literary Magazine and Review of New Books (Public domain ed.). Siegel-Cooper.

Bibliography[edit]

• Dippie, Brian W. (1994). Custer's Last Stand: The Anatomy of an American Myth. University of Nebraska Press. p. 183. ISBN 0-8032-6592-1.
• Fisher, James; Londré, Felicia Hardison (22 November 2017). Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Modernism. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-1-5381-0786-7.

External links[edit]

• Works by or about Marguerite Merington at Internet Archive