Fanny Kemble (1809-93) was born into the leading theatrical family in London, educated in Paris, and wound up performing in America to raise money to rescue her father from bankruptcy. She was befriended in New York by Catharine Maria Sedgwick, who invited her to the Berkshires, which became the foundation of the cultural tourism industry in the Berkshires.
Her diary about her residence during 1838-39 on her husband’s plantation in Georgia, written in the form of letters to Mrs. Kate Sedgwick, although not published until 1863, is said to have turned the tide of English sentiment against officially supporting the Confederacy. Although great friends with both Melville and Hawthorne, Fanny Kemble was not in the party that hiked Monument Mountain, Aug. 5, 1850. More soon…
Poetry by Fanny Kemble
Faith
Better trust all, and be deceived,
And weep that trust, and that deceiving;
Than doubt one heart, that, if believed,
Had blessed one’s life with true believing.
Oh, in this mocking world, too fast
The doubting fiend o’ertakes our youth!
Better be cheated to the last,
Than lose the blessèd hope of truth.
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