Susanna Rowson

Susanna Rowson (1762-1824) was a British-American novelist, poet, actress, and geographer. Born in Portsmouth, England, Rowson was taken to Massachusetts by her father, a Royal Navy officer, following the death of her mother. The family was placed under house arrest during the American Revolution and moved from Nantasket to Abington, Massachusetts. In 1778, they were sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia as part of a prisoner exchange and later settled in Yorkshire, England. As a young woman, Susanna moved to London and embarked on a career as a writer with the publication of Victoria (1786). Five years later, she published Charlotte Temple, which went on to become the first bestselling novel in the newly formed United States. In 1793, after gaining a reputation as an actress in Edinburgh, Susanna moved to Philadelphia to join the theater company of Thomas Wignell, for whom she performed over fifty roles in just two seasons on stage. She left theater several years later to found a school for girls in Boston, which she later moved to Newton, Massachusetts. Rowson continued writing works of fiction throughout her life, but largely devoted herself to education in her late career. Rowson’s Abridgement to Universal Geography (1805) and Youth’s First Steps in Geography (1811) are considered the first works of human geography—incorporating social and religious subjects—published in history. She ran her school, which eventually returned to Boston, until 1822, at which point she retired and handed operations over to her daughters.