Brooks, Maria Gowen (c. 1794–1845)

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Brooks, Maria Gowen (c. 1794–1845)

American poet. Name variations: Maria Gowan Brooks; (pseudonym) Maria del Occidente. Born Abigail Gowen (also seen as Gowan), c. 1794, in Medford, Massachusetts; baptized as Mary Abigail Brooks; died Nov 11, 1845, in Matanzas, Cuba; dau. of Eleanor (Cutter) Gowen and William Gowen (goldsmith); m. John Brooks (Boston merchant), Aug 26, 1810 (died 1823); children: 2 sons, Edgar and Horace, and 2 stepsons.

Referred to by Robert Southey as "the most empassioned and most imaginative of all poetesses," published small verse collection Judith, Esther, and Other Poems (1820); known primarily for her romance Zóphiël; or the Bride of Seven, published under the pseudonym Maria del Occidente (1833), also wrote romantic autobiography Idomen: or the Vale of Yumuri which was serialized in the Boston Saturday Evening Gazette (1838); financed a limited edition of Idomen (1843).

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Brooks, Maria Gowen (c. 1794–1845)

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