Born: 30 May 1874, United States
Died: 4 December 1922
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Josephine Peabody Marks
The following is republished with permission from the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.
Josephine Preston Peabody was an accomplished author noted for her plays and poetry. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to 26 King Street in Dorchester to live with her maternal grandmother after her father’s death. She attended the Harris School and Girls’ Latin School and was accepted to Radcliffe College as a special student. The Woman’s Journal published a poem that she wrote at the age of fourteen, while some of her other early pieces appeared in the Atlantic Monthly and Scribner’s Magazine. She taught literature from 1901 – 03 at Wellesley College. Her verse drama, The Piper (1909), was awarded the Stratford Prize and was staged in London and New York. Her collection of poetry, The Singing Man (1911), reflected her commitment to social justice. She moved to Cambridge, MA, traveled extensively in Europe, and married Harvard professor Lionel Marks. His support made it possible for her to focus on her writing, much of which was published by Houghton Mifflin. She was also the mother of two children.
The following is excerpted from Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company.
Josephine Preston Peabody, an American poet and dramatist, born in New York, educated at Radcliffe College. After being an instructor in English at Wellesley from 1901 to 1903, shew as married in 1906 to Prof. L.S. Marks of Harvard University.
In 1909 she won the Stratford-on-Avon prize with her beautiful poetic play The Piper, produced in England in 1910, and at the New Theatre, New York, in 1911.
Her writing has the qualities of delicate beauty and refinement with a deep poetic feeling. Among her books are: Fortunate and Men’s Eyes, Marlow, a Drama, The Singing Man, The Wolf of Gubbio, a Drama (1913), New Poems (1915)