Anne C. Lynch
Anne Charlotte Lynch, author, b. in Bennington, Vt., in 1820. Her
father was a native of Dublin, Ireland, who, at the age of sixteen,
joined the rebel forces under Lord Edward Fitzgerald. He was captured,
and remained a prisoner four years, when, still refusing to take the
oath of allegiance, he was banished, and came to the United States,
where he married and died a few years later. His daughter was educated
in Albany, N.Y., and began early to write for literary periodicals.
She removed to Providence, R.I., and there edited the "Rhode
Island Book," containing selections from authors of that state
(Providence, 1841). Soon afterward she returned to New York, where she
has since resided, and in 1855 married Prof. Botta. Their house has
been for many years open to a wide range of literary and artistic
people, and Mrs. Botta's receptions have been attended by many of the
most famous authors, painters, and musicians of Europe and America.
During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) an effort was made in New York
city to collect funds for the suffering women and children of Paris.
Mrs. Botta prepared as her contribution an album of autographs,
photographs, and original sketches by celebrated artists, which was
sold for $5,000. As the war had closed before the collection was
complete, this sum was appropriated to found a prize at the French
academy, to be awarded every five years, when the interest of this sum
reached $1000, for the best essay on the "Condition of Woman." Mrs.
Botta's style is musical, elegant, and finished. Among her best poems
are "Paul at Athens," "Webster," "Books,"
and "Wasted Fountains." Her sonnets are especially successful. She
has published in periodicals innumerable stories, essays, and
criticisms. The first collected edition of her poems (New York, 1848;
new ed., 1884) was illustrated by Brown, Darley, Durand, Huntington,
and other artists. Her "Leaves
from the Diary of a Recluse" appeared in
"The Gift" for 1845. She has also published a "Handbook of Universal
Literature" (New York,1860), containing concise accounts of great
authors of all ages and their works, which has been adopted as a
text-book in many educational institutions.-- Appleton's Cyclopaedia of
American Biography edited by James Grant Wilson and John Fiske (New
York: Appleton, 1887).
Early
letters of Anne C. Lynch in the Notre Dame Archives
Memoirs of Anne C.L. Botta: written by her friends
Her Poems in a plain text file (114k)
Her Poems in html