Ohio Women of Note
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Alice and Phoebe Cary
Genuine Writing Talent
by Ernest Cady
The scriptural apothegm about the prophet who is not without honor save in his own country applies with special force to Alice (1820-1871)
and Phoebe (1824-1871) Cary, who are recalled today in their native state as sentimental lady poets.
Even the entry in Ohio Authors and Their Books
calls Alice's prose writings "melodramatic," and says they "reflect her somewhat limited experience." Her poems are said to suffer "from an excess of
sentimentality." And while Phoebe is described as a witty conversationalist, a skillful parodist, and clever writer of light verse, she is remembered
now almost solely for having written the words of a lugubrious gospel hymn titled "Nearer Home."
Both Alice and Phoebe Cary were born with a genuine writing talent which developed early in an uncongenial home
environment and which enabled them to produce a solid body of meritorious work, by the literary standards of their times, during a relatively
short writing career.
The Cary sisters' stepmother thought the girls should devote themselves to farm and household chores instead of mooning around over poetry.
But Alice persevered and when she was 18, her first published poem appeared in the Cincinnati Sentinel. Over the next 10 years her verse -
and later Phoebe's - was published all over the country.
Their work was praised by such authorities as Poe, Whittier, Greeley, and anthologist Rufus W. Griswold, who helped them put
together their first published book in 1849.
When 31, Alice moved to New York and settled in a house at 53 East 20th Stret where Phoebe soon joined her.
It was a daring move for sheltered, rural Ohio spinsters in 1849.
Over the next two decades, the sisters were recognized as leading members of the Eastern literary establishment, and
presided over a literary salon which was a genteel prototype of the more Bohemian writers' groups that flourished in Greenwich Village in later years.
During these 20 years, Alice and Phoebe published 15 volumes of poetry, fiction, essays, stories for children, and
social commentary, besides a mass of periodical and newspaper writings. They were active and articulate in the women's rights movement.
Much of their output leaned toward the sentimental, the moralistic, and the didactic. While their work had these
flaws and limitations, they were the hallmarks of a whole generation of American writers.
This article was first published in the 1974 Ohioana Year Book. At the time, Ernest Cady was the
literary editor for the Columbus Dispatch.
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