Estelle Anna Lewis

Estelle Anna Lewis (; April 1824 – November 24, 1880) was a 19th-century American poet and dramatist. After marriage, she started using pen names, including "Estelle", "Stella", and "Stells". was born near Baltimore, Maryland, April 1824. She was the daughter of John Robinson, a wealthy planter from Cuba of English and Spanish descent.

She began writing very early, her first efforts, a series of stories, appearing during her school days in the Family Magazine of Albany, New York.

In 1841, she married Sidney D. Lewis, an attorney and counsellor of Brooklyn, New York, and she moved to his home. They hosted salons and were noted figures in the New York literary scene. They were divorced in 1858, and afterwards, she resided mostly abroad, principally in England.

While in Italy, in 1863, she wrote her tragedy of Helémah, or the Fall of Montezuma, which was published on her return to the United States the next year (New York, 1864). The success of this work encouraged her to write Sappho of Lesbos, a tragedy, her best dramatic work (London, 1868). This reached a seventh edition, and was translated into modern Greek and played at Athens. Other works included The Child of the Sea and other Poems (New York, 1848), The Myths of the Minstrel (1852), Poems (London, 1866) and The King's Stratagem, a tragedy (1869).

Lewis' later years were passed in England, returning there in 1865. Her last work was a series of sonnets in defence of Poe. The French poet Alphonse de Lamartine called her the "Female Petrarch," and Poe "the rival of Sappho." Adrien Rouquette translated Lewis' poems into French.

She died at Bedord Place, London, W.C. November 24, 1880.

Critical response Her writings were characterized as commonplace in character.

Lamartine referred to her as a "female Petrarch.” Yet, within ten years after her death, she had been so completely forgotten that she was not deemed worthy a place in Stedman and Hutchinson's exhaustive Library of American Literature.

Selected works

Records of the Heart : Lyrical and Narrative Poems (New York, 1844) The Forsaken The Child of the Sea and other Poems (New York, 1848) The Myths of the Minstrel (New York, 1852) Records of the Heart. Complete poetical works. Illustrations. (New York, 1857) Helémah, or the Fall of Montezuma: a Tragedy (New York, 1863) Sappho of Lesbos: a Tragedy (London, 1868) The King's Stratagem; or, the Pearl of Poland : a Tragedy. (London, 1869)