Anna Cora Mowatt

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Mowatt, Anna Cora [née Ogden] (1819–70), playwright and actress. The daughter of a prosperous New York merchant, she was born in France, and when she was seven, came to live in America, where at fifteen she was married to a well‐known lawyer. Mowatt's poor health often restricted her to her home, where she took to writing to pass the time. In addition to poetry and novels, she wrote several unproduced plays. She is most remembered for her first play to be seen on Broadway, the society satire Fashion (1845). The success of the piece allowed her to recruit her strength and, taking advantage of her newfound health and fame, she tested her skills at acting. Mowatt's debut was as Pauline in The Lady of Lyons (1845), and she was so successful that she spent the next two seasons touring, the second season with E. L. Davenport as her leading man. Among her other roles were Mrs. Haller in The Stranger, Beatrice, Lady Teazle, and Gertrude in her own Fashion. Edgar Allan Poe wrote of the auburn‐haired actress, “Her figure is slight—even fragile—but eminently graceful. Her face is a remarkably fine one, and of that precise character best adapted to the stage. . . . Her manner on the stage is distinguished by an ease and self‐possession. . . . Her voice is rich and voluminous.” Mowatt's second play to be produced was the costume drama Armand (1847). When Mr. Mowatt died while touring with her in England in 1851, she returned to America to attempt another tour, but her health gave out. She made her farewell at Niblo's Garden in 1854, then three days later she remarried. Her last decade was spent largely in England. Although Fashion often has been revived and remains one of the best 19th‐century American comedies, Mowatt's real importance may rest with the respectability that she as a gentlewoman gave to acting as a profession. Autobiography: Autobiography of an Actress; or, Eight Years on the Stage, 1854.

Mowatt, Anna Cora (1819–70),pursued a literary career in New York as a hack writer of widely varied material, until in 1845 her farcical social comedy Fashion made her a respected author. This play was followed by a romantic prose and verse drama of the reign of Louis XV, Armand, the Child of the People (1847). In 1845 she went on the stage, and achieved great success, which she discussed in her Autobiography of an Actress (1854), and which furnished material for her romantic narratives of stage life, Mimic Life (1856) and Twin Roses (1857). After 1861, she lived abroad, where she wrote romantic novels and historical sketches. Her earlier novels of New York society include The Fortune Hunter (1844) and Evelyn; or, A Heart Unmasked (1845).