Letters from Sarah Anne Ellis Dorsey to Edward Lyulph Stanley

Scope and Content

Letters on various subjects addressed to Edward Lyulph Stanley from the American authoress Sarah Anne Ellis Dorsey (1829-1879).

Administrative / Biographical History

Sarah Anne Ellis Dorsey (1829-1879), writer, was born in Natchez, Mississippi, USA on 16 February 1829, daughter of Thomas G.P. Ellis, a wealthy plantation owner. She received a good education, which she completed in England. In 1853 she married Samuel Worthington Dorsey and moved to Louisiana.

During her career she corresponded with numerous intellectual and literary figures all over the world and held membership in the New Orleans Academy of Science.

She wrote many magazine articles and six novels; Agnes Graham was serialized in 1863 in the Southern Literary Messenger and was published in book form in 1869. Lucia Dare was published in 1867, Athalie in 1872, and Panola in 1877. Two other novels, Vivacious Castine and The Vivians were written for the Church Intellegencer and were never published in book form. Her finest work was a biography of Governor Henry W. Allen of Louisiana, a close friend of the Dorseys; Reflections of Henry W. Allen was published in 1866. Dorsey died on 4 July 1879.