Born: 4 September 1824, United States
Died: 31 July 1871
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Phebe Cary or Carey
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:
Alice Cary, an American writer. She and her sister, Phoebe Cary, were born near Cincinnati, Ohio, and had only the slight advantage of education afforded by a newly settled country.
The Poems of Alice and Phoebe Cary of which about one-third were written by the latter, appeared in Philadelphia in 1849.
In 1850 the two sisters removed to New York, when they devoted themselves with industry and success to literary labor. Alice became a contributor to the leading periodicals and her prose and poetry were warmly welcomed both at home an abroad.
Her poems are characterized by a rare naturalness and grace, and her prose is noted for its charming descriptions of domestic life.
From Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.:
Alice and Phoebe Cary, The literary sisters
Their early years were spent at Miami Valley, near Cincinnati, Ohio. They both possessed marked literary tastes and ability, and began writing for the press while in their teens.
Their mother died when Alice was not but eleven, and their stepmother had not sympathy with their literary aspirations. Candles were refused them after the day’s work was done and they used a saucer of lard with a rag for a wick, and by this light they studied and wrote.
Alice received no financial compensation for her work for the first ten years. She wrote for the love of it — we may say, from an overflowing heart.
Alice wrote both prose and poetry. Phoebe gave her attention almost entirely to poetry, having little taste for prose productions.
The sisters lived in a house by themselves for some years, the father and stepmother occupying another residence.
In 1852, having received some means of their own, the sisters removed to New York city, where their home became the center of a choice group of people interested in literature and art. Here they held receptions each week, which became deservedly popular.
They died in the same year, but a few months apart. Alice was an invalid in her last years and the care of the household devolved upon Phoebe. She was thus deprived of much time which otherwise have been given to literary work and would have added to her fame.
Alice wrote Clovernook, or Recollections of our Neighborhood in the West, Hagar, a Story of To-day, Married, not Mated, Pictures of Country life, Ballads, Lyrics, and Hymns. Her characters are realistic and her descriptions of domestic life are charming.
Phoebe is know for her poem which begins One sweetly solemn thought comes to me o’er and o’er, Poems of Faith, Hope, and Love, and other productions which were published in a volume with those of her sister, before their removal to New York.
The following is excerpted from A Cyclopædia of Female Biography, published 1857 by Groomsbridge and Sons and edited by Henry Gardiner Adams.
CAREY, ALICE and PHŒBE, have, within the last few years, written poetry that justly places them among the gifted daughters of America. The lyre seems to obey their hearts as the Æolian harp does the wind, every impulse gushing out in song. The father of these ladies was a native of Vermont, who removed to Ohio whilst it was a territory. The wild place where he settled has become a pleasant village, not far from Cincinnati; there they were born, and have always resided. The father has been greatly blessed in his children; surely with such treasures he must be rich indeed. The excellent mother of these sweet singers is no longer living; the daughters are thus invested with the matronly duties of house-keeping, and, to their praise be it recorded, they never neglect domestic matters even for the wooings of the Muse.
Griswold, in his “Female Poets of America,” has thus described the characteristics of these sisters. “Alice Carey evinces in many of her poems a genuine imagination and a creative energy that challenges peculiar praise. We have perhaps no other author, so young, in whom the poetical faculty is so largely developed. Her sister writes with vigour, and a hopeful and genial spirit, and there are many felicities of expression, particularly in her later pieces. She refers more than Alice to the common experience, and has, perhaps, a deeper sympathy with that philosophy and those movements of the day, which look for a nearer approach to equality, in culture, fortune, and social relations.”
A volume of “Poems, by Alice and Phoebe Carey,” was published in 1850. “Hualco, a Romance of the Golden Age of Tezcuco,” by Alice Carey, appeared in 1851. The poem is founded upon adventures of a Mexican Prince, before the conquest, as related by Clavigero, Torquemada, and other historians.