Susan Hale

Susan Hale (December 5, 1833 – September 17, 1910) was an American author, traveler and artist. She was a prolific writer as well as a famous watercolor painter, art which she studied under English, French and German masters. Hale traveled extensively and visited the art galleries of the world, leading to many writings, paintings and sketches of the places she visited. She was associated with her brother, the Rev. Edward Everett Hale, in the publication of The Family Flight series, which included the several countries she had visited. She also exhibited her paintings of the White Mountains in New Hampshire, of North Carolina scenery and of foreign scenes, in New York City and Boston. She edited Life and Letters of Thomas Gold Appleton, and contributed numerous articles to periodicals.

Early life and education She was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Nathan Hale and Sarah Preston Everett who had a total of seven children. Susan's father, Nathan Hale, nephew and namesake of the patriot hero, was a lawyer and editor/owner of the Boston Daily Advertiser while her mother was also an author, translator and helped in editorial tasks. Her mother was a sister of Edward Everett, a Unitarian minister and politician. Growing up as the youngest of seven, Susan was mostly the companion of her older sister Lucretia, and then entered the school of George Barrell Emerson. Without any particular teaching, she learned to draw and to paint early in life, Among her interests, she also practiced physical excersice on the street, swam in a lake near her home, rode horses and went canoeing. Her professional and leisure interests were definitely groundbreaking for a woman in the 19th century.

For many years, she was a successful teacher in Boston. She started this occupation when her father became ill and the family income needed to be supplemented. In 1860, she moved to Brookline with her family. Her father died there in 1862 and her mother in 1865. When the family situation broke up in 1867, Susan and her sister Lucretia went abroad to stay with their brother Charles who was consul general of the United States in Egypt. On returning from abroad, Susan took rooms at 91 Boylston Street in Boston and continued her teaching.

In 1872, she decided she wanted to get the best training in watercolor she could, and went abroad again and studied art in Paris, France, and Weimar, Germany, for nearly a year. When she returned in 1873, she began giving lessons in watercolors. She lived and maintained a studio in the Art Club at 64 Boylston Street. Later, she began holding meetings where she read or talked to people. She continued visiting Boston between her travels abroad and her stays at Matunuck.

Works Susan Hale's literary production was quite prolific and varied. Generally, it reflected her desire to engage in something different, hoping to subvert women's situation at the time. Yet, she was obviously influenced by the English colonizer society surrounding her and to avoid falling into clichés or stereotypes imposed by it was certainly a challenge. However respectful and groundbreaking, Hale's perception of Spain was ultimately as an old-fashioned Spain anchored in the past, as opposed to the idea of progress, future and opportunity represented by the US.

Selected works

A Family Flight through France, Germany, Norway and Switzerland. 1881 (with Edward Everett Hale) A Family Flight over Egypt and Syria. 1882 (with Edward Everett Hale) A Family Flight through Spain. 1883 Self-Instructive Lessons in Painting with Oil and Water-Colors on Silk, Satin, Velvet, and Other Fabrics Including Lustra Painting and the Use of Other Mediums. 1885 Men and Manners of the Eighteenth Century. 1898 Addison and Gay. 1898 Young Americans in Spain. 1899 Letters of Susan Hale. 1919 Nonsense Book; A Collection of Limericks. 1919 Inklings for Thinklings. 1919