Wood, Sally Sayward Barrell Keating (1759–1855)

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Wood, Sally Sayward Barrell Keating (1759–1855)

American novelist. Name variations: Sarah Sayward Barrell Keating Wood; S. S. B. K. Wood; Madam Wood. Born Sally Sayward Barrell, Oct 1, 1759, in York, ME; died Jan 6, 1855, in Kennebunk, ME; dau. of Nathaniel Barrell (merchant) and Sally (Sayward) Barrell; m. Richard Keating (court clerk), Nov 23, 1778 (died June 1783); m. Gen. Abiel Wood, Oct 28, 1804 (died 1811); children: (1st m.) 1 son, 2 daughters.

Maine's 1st female novelist and America's 1st gothic writer, favored the sentimental fiction style established by Susanna Rowson; using pseudonym "A Lady of Massachusetts," published 4 novels, Julia and the Illuminated Baron (1800), Dorval; or the Speculator (1801), Amelia; or the Influence of Virtue (1802), and Ferdinand and Elmira: A Russian Story (1804); published Tales of the Night in Portland, ME, as "A Lady of Maine" (1927).

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