Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1791–1865) was the most widely read and respected pre-Civil War American woman poet in the English-speaking world. In a half-century career, Sigourney produced a wide range of poetry and prose envisaging the United States as a new kind of republic with a unique mission in history, in which women like herself had a central role. This edition contributes to the current recovery of Sigourney and her republican vision from the oblivion into which they were cast by the aftermath of the Civil War, the construction of a male-dominated American “national” literary canon, and the aesthetics of Modernism.

In this Broadview edition, a representative selection of poetry and prose from across her career illustrates Sigourney’s national vision and the diversity of forms she used to promote it. In the appendices, letters and documents illustrate her challenges and working methods in what she called her “kitchen in Parnassus.”

Lydia Sigourney's profile page

Gary Kelly's profile page

Gary Kelly is Professor of English and Canada Research Chair at the University of Alberta. He is the editor of the Broadview Editions of Felicia Hemans: Selected Poems, Prose, and Letters and Sarah Scott’s Milennium Hall.

“When Edgar Allan Poe wrote to Lydia Huntley Sigourney that his magazine would not be complete without a poem by her, he correctly gauged his reader’s interest. Sigourney was the most popular American woman poet in both the United States and England in the early nineteenth century, and she earned this reputation by virtue of her remarkable skill as a writer and the extraordinary range of her themes, poetic forms, and literary genres. This rich collection of her poetry, fiction, and essays amply demonstrates her advocacy on behalf of women’s domestic culture, the new republican nation, Christian evangelism, and the American landscape. Gary Kelly’s wide selection of Sigourney’s work introduces the reader—at long last!—to the broad compass of her themes.” — Dorothy Z. Baker, University of Houston

“Gary Kelly’s much needed edition will make a critical difference to many fields by making Lydia Sigourney’s work available for students and general readers in a comprehensive manner. His brilliant interdisciplinary introduction will allow scholars to take Sigourney seriously and in doing so to revise their understanding of Romanticism, American Studies, and women’s writing.” — Mary Lou Kete, University of Vermont