Maria Susanna Cummins (1827-1866)

Maria Susanna Cummins was an American novelist. Her most well known novel is 'The Lamplighter' which was published in 1854 and at the time was second in sales only to Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'. Unfortunately non of her other novels achieved the same success and she died at the age of only 39 in 1866 after a two-year illness. 

"No person with the slightest love of country can be

unmoved by our present alarming condition"

In her letter to Sampson Low & Co, Maria Cummins writes over a page regarding financial matters and then turns to the current conflict of civil war in her home country of America. The letter is written from her home in Dorchester, Massachusetts in December 1860.

View Maria Cummins' letter [opens in a new window]

Image Rights: From wikimedia.org