Lulah Ragsdale

Lulah Ragsdale
Born Tallulah James Ragsdale
February 5, 1861
Lawrence County, Mississippi, U.S.
Died December 26, 1953(1953-12-26) (aged 92)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Resting place Rose Hill Cemetery, Brookhaven, Mississippi
Occupation writer
Language English
Alma mater Whitworth Female College

Lulah Ragsdale (February 5, 1861 – December 26, 1953) was an American poet, novelist and actor from the U.S. state of Mississippi. She was one of the state’s first female writers.[1]

Early years and education

Tallulah James Ragsdale was born in the family mansion of "Cedar Hall" in Lawrence County, Mississippi, though that area subsequently become Lincoln County,[2] on 5 February 1866. She was the only child of the Confederate officer, James Lafayette Ragsdale, who died in battle during the American Civil War. Her mother, Martha Hooker Ragsdale, was a member of the Hooker family. One of her ancestors was Nathaniel Hooker, a pilgrim father, whose immediate descendants settled in Virginia.[3][4]

Ragsdale received her early education from her mother. At an early age, Ragsdale became an unsatisfiable reader, always seeking the weird, the unreal, the mystic; or else, the vivid, the passionate, the glowing in prose and poetry. The characters in her favorite books became her best friends, and in the constant company of such unreal creatures as she most fancied, her thoughts, her manners and her conversation became very odd and unchildlike.[4]

Career

At 16, Ragsdale graduated from Whitworth Female College in Brookhaven, and though she had been writing in secret for some years, it was not until about 1890 that her first published poem, "My Love," appeared in the New Orleans Times-Democrat (now The Times-Picayune). It at once created a furor in the South, and was copied widely. Her "Galatea," "Upton Rey" and many other poems were stereotyped and reproduced throughout the US. Her poems appeared in the leading southern papers, but she also wrote for many northern magazines, as well as weekly and daily papers.[3][4]

Along with poetry, she also studied drama, and was a successful actresses.[3] However, her novels, written in the 1890s through the 1920s which earned her a reputation as a writer.[2] She lived at Hardy House in Brookhaven,[5] which is on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Lincoln County, Mississippi. She died December 26, 1953 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[6]

A Shadow's Shadow

Ambition, which in the words of Hamlet, is a shadow's shadow, is, in the conception of Ragsdale's A Shadow's Shadow, a very real factor in the life of the several people who act out their parts on the stage of her story. To Lydia Gentry, born an actress as well as a lady, it is a source of tragic pain. To Dane Maequoid, her devoted lover and victim, it is a terrible blight. To the shifty theatrical manager, A. P. Garnett, it is a capital investment. Such, in short, is the book. Gentry springs from an impoverished Southern family, and, after severe experiences, nobly succeeds on a New York stage. Garnett offers her his business talents and his hand. She accepts both, and starts down to her country home for study and a summer’s rest. In the private production of her own play, she is brought into contact with Macquoid, and there arises a series of scenes which are refreshing in their passionate vigor to even the most blasé of novel-readers. Ragsdale has very much of the wild freedom and subtle emotion of Amélie Rives, and these traits, held in check by a sufficiently correct taste, have furnished forth the material for a book warm with a woman’s aspirations. The Lippincotts provided handsome letter-press, and a striking paper cover of pink which falls in aptly with the heightened tone of the tale. [7]

Selected works

  • 1892, The crime of Philip Guthrie
  • 1893, A shadow's shadow
  • 1917, Miss Dulcie from Dixie
  • 1920, Next-Besters

References

  1. ↑ "Lula Ragsdale Collection". Lincoln-Lawrence-Franklin Regional Library. Retrieved 25 November 2016.
  2. 1 2 Lloyd 1981, p. 378.
  3. 1 2 3 Willard & Livermore 1897, p. 594.
  4. 1 2 3 Moulton 1893, p. 275.
  5. ↑ Howell 1998, p. 38.
  6. ↑ "Tallulah James "Lulah" Ragsdale (1861 - 1953) - Find A Grave Memorial". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  7. ↑ Lippincott 1892, p. 685-86.

Attribution

  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lippincott, J. B. (1892). Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, a Popular Journal of General Literature (Public domain ed.). J. B. Lippincott and Company.
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Moulton, Charles Wells (1893). The Magazine of Poetry. 5 (Public domain ed.). Charles Wells Moulton.
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1897). American Women: Fifteen Hundred Biographies with Over 1,400 Portraits: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of the Lives and Achievements of American Women During the Nineteenth Century. Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick.

Bibliography

  • Howell, Elmo (1 May 1998). Mississippi Back Roads: Notes on Literature and History. Elmo Howell. ISBN 978-0-9622026-6-7.
  • Lloyd, James B. (1981). Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817–1967. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-61703-418-3.
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