The Female Prose Writers of America/Emily C. Judson
EMILY C. JUDSON,
(FANNY FORRESTER.)
Emily C. Chubbuck was born in the pleasant town of Morrisville, in the central part of New York. This is the “Alderbrook” so familiar to her readers. Here she made a profession of religion, and connected herself with the Baptist church.
From Morrisville she went to Utica, to engage in teaching. While living at Utica, she made her first essays at authorship. These consisted of some small volumes of a religious character published by the Baptist Publication Society, and poetical contributions to the Knickerbocker. None of these, however, attracted any special attention. The first production of her pen that is at all noticeable was a light article which she wrote, without any very definite design, under the assumed name of “Fanny Forrester” to the “New Mirror,” while on a visit to the city of New York. This was in June, 1844. The editor had the sagacity, in this, as in several other instances, to perceive at once the evidences of genius that appeared in this playful bagatelle, and by a warm and judicious commendation, led the author to a continued, and, in the end, most successful, exploration of the vein thus accidentally brought to light. A series of essays, sketches, and poems followed, of a very brilliant character, which in 1846 were collected and published in two volumes under the title of “Alderbrook.”
In the beginning of 1846, the venerable missionary Judson returned to America, to visit the churches. On coming to Philadelphia, he was directed to Miss Chubbuck as a suitable person to prepare a memoir of his lately deceased wife, the second Mrs. Judson. Miss Chubbuck, then resident in Philadelphia, cheerfully undertook the grateful task. Being thus thrown much together, a mutual affection sprung up between them, and the favoured child of literature joyfully laid aside the laurels then fresh upon her brow, to go, as the wife of Dr. Judson, on a self-denying mission to the Burmans. They were married, at Hamilton, New York, June 2, 1846, and soon after sailed for Burmah. The “Memoir” was published in 1848. Dr. Judson died at Maulmain, in Burmah, in 1850.
Mrs. Judson is now on her way back to the United States.