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Grace Donworth

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American writer (1857–1945)
Grace Donworth
A middle-aged white woman with blonde or white hair in a bouffant updo, photographed in profile, wearing a frilly off-the-shoulder dressGrace Donworth, from a 1909 publication
Born(1857-07-22)July 22, 1857
Machias, Maine, US
DiedNovember 25, 1945(1945-11-25) (aged 88)
Machias, Maine, US
Occupation(s)Writer, artist
RelativesGeorge Donworth (brother)

Grace Donworth (July 22, 1857 – November 25, 1945) was an American writer and artist, based in Maine. Mark Twain promoted her "Jennie Allen" books to his audiences.

Early life

Donworth was born on July 22, 1857, in Machias, Maine, the daughter of Patrick Enright Donworth and Mary Eliza Baker Donworth. Her father was a lumberman, and her four brothers became lawyers. Her brother George Donworth was a judge in Washington state. Her younger brother Albert B. Donworth was also a writer. She graduated from Notre Dame Academy, with further art training in Boston.

Career

Donworth taught school in Massachusetts and Maine. She was regent of the Machias chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). She also belonged to the American Folklore Society and the Boston Authors Club.

Donworth joined other women in Providence, Rhode Island, to assemble relief shipments to the victims of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake; while there, she wrote humorous letters to a fellow aid worker, Miss Stockbridge, in the persona of an "unsophisticated and old fashioned" seamstress. Those became her "Jennie Allen" stories. Stockbridge shared the letters with her brother and with a DAR meetings, and they eventually came to the attention of Mark Twain.

Mark Twain enjoyed Donworth's "Jennie Allen" writings. They were first presented to him as genuine correspondence, but he soon knew they were Donworth's creation: "'Jennie's' letters are an innocent fraud, and a quite justifiable one, since they make pleasant reading and can harm no one," he wrote in a 1906 letter. He helped her find a publisher, and promoted her works to his audiences. In Everybody's Magazine, J. B. Kerfoot called The Letters of Jennie Allen "the best piece of homely fun of the year."

Publications

  • The Letters of Jennie Allen (1908) (first published in Ladies' Home Journal)
  • Down Home with Jennie Allen (1910)

Personal life

Donworth died in Machias, on November 25, 1945, aged 88. Her papers are in the Maine State Library.

References

  1. "Mark Twain Helped 'Jennie Allen' to Fame". The Virginian-Pilot. 1912-04-28. p. 32. Retrieved 2024-09-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Donworth House, Machias". Tides Institute & Museum of Art. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
  3. ^ Lord, Alice Frost (1944-07-29). "Machias Woman Artist and Humorist; Mark Twain Helped Spread Fame of Miss Donworth". Sun-Journal. p. 17. Retrieved 2024-09-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Maine Willowy Girl's Wit Captivated Mark Twain". The Boston Globe. 1912-03-17. p. 73. Retrieved 2024-09-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. Who's who in America. A.N. Marquis. 1924. p. 986.
  6. "Donworth, Albert Bernard, 1867-". The Online Books Page. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
  7. Donworth, Albert Bernard (1953). Why Columbus Sailed. Exposition Press.
  8. Proceedings of the ... Continental Congress of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The Congress. 1915. p. 974.
  9. Marquis, Albert Nelson (1915). Who's who in New England: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men and Women of the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. A.N. Marquis. p. 340.
  10. "Letters of Jennie Allen". The Inter Ocean. 1908-10-31. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-09-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. Gilder, Jeannette L. (May 1912). "Women Writers as Humorists: Some Books that have Made Us Laugh". Ladies' Home Companion. 39: 22.
  12. "Grace Donworth" Putnam's Magazine 5(6)(March 1909): 755-757.
  13. Twain, Mark (2010). Autobiography of Mark Twain. University of California Press. p. 245-247.
  14. Kerfoot, J. B. "A Row of Books" Everybody's Magazine 20(2)(February 1909): 435.
  15. "More Letters" The Canadian Magazine 32(4)(February 1909): 386.
  16. "Down Home with Jennie Allen" The Publishers' Weekly 2026(November 26, 1910): 106.
  17. "Grace Donworth, Author of Note, Dies in Machias". The Bangor Daily News. 1945-11-27. p. 15. Retrieved 2024-09-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. Donworth, Grace; Self, Grace; Self, F. D.; Gold, Carol; Jacob, Hilda (2015-09-11). "Grace Donworth Correspondence". Maine Writers Correspondence.
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