The Female Prose Writers of America/Emma C. Embury
Mrs. Embury is a native of New York, and a daughter of an eminent physician of that city, James R. Manly, M. D. She was married on the 28th of May, 1828, to Mr. Daniel Embury, of Brooklyn, where she has since resided.
Mrs. Embury has written much, both in prose and verse, and with equal success in both kinds of writing. Her earlier effusions were published under the signature of “Ianthe.” A volume of them was collected under the title of “Guido, and other Poems.” Her tales, like her poems, have all been published originally in magazines and other periodicals. Were these all collected, they would fill many volumes. The only volumes formed in this way, thus far, have been, “Blind Girl, and other Tales,” “Glimpses of Home Life”; and “Pictures of Early Life.” In 1845 she edited a very elegant gift book, called “Nature’s Gems, or American Wild Flowers,” with numerous coloured plates, and articles, both in prose and verse, by herself. In 1846, she published another collection of poems, called “Love’s Token Flowers.” In 1848, “The Waldorf Family” appeared. It is a fairy tale of Brittany, adapted to the meridian of the United States and the present age of the world, being partly a translation and partly original.
If Mrs. Embury never rises so high as some of our female writers some times do, no one, on the other hand, who has written so much, approaches her in the ability of writing uniformly well. She seems to have the faculty of never being dull. There is, too, a certain gentle amenity of thought and diction that never forsakes her, taking from the edge of what might otherwise be harsh, and giving a charm to what might be common place. If her stories are not deeply tragical or thrilling, they are always beautiful, they always please, they always leave the mind instructed and the heart better.