Sally Sayward Barrell Keating Wood
Sally Sayward Barrell Keating Wood (1759-1827) was an influential American writer recognized as one of the first women to publish in the United States and the first female author of gothic fiction. Born in York, Maine, she drew from her regional surroundings to craft graphic and realistic narratives that resonated with the conventions of the eighteenth-century Gothic novel and romance. Her works often feature virtuous heroines facing morally entrenched male antagonists, where themes of aristocracy, virtue, and morality are prevalent. Wood's narratives concluded with marriages that symbolized happiness and resolution.
Following the death of her husband Richard Keating in 1783, she turned to writing to support her three children, producing four notable novels between 1797 and 1804, including *Julia and the Illuminated Baron* and *Dorval: Or, The Speculator*. Her writing reflects her upbringing among aristocratic descendants, and she was inspired by her grandfather, Jonathan Sayward, a successful merchant and landowner. Wood's literary contributions, including her posthumously published *Tales of the Night*, are significant in the context of American literature, particularly for women writers of her time.
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Subject Terms
Sally Sayward Barrell Keating Wood
Author
- Born: October 1, 1759
- Birthplace: York, Massachusetts (now Maine)
- Died: January 6, 1855
- Place of death: Kennebunkport, Maine
Biography
American writer Sally Sayward Barrell Keating Wood was one of the first women in America to be published, and is the first American woman writer of gothic fiction. Her stories have also been called novels of sensibility. As the first woman writer in Maine, Wood is noted for the regional settings of Maine that she incorporated in her novels, which were both graphic and realistic.
Her novels resemble the eighteenth century Gothic novels and romances, which were very popular. Her heroines are virtuous even under duress and her plots incorporate aristocratic interests and moral themes. The antagonists in her novels are men whose evil is so entrenched in their personalities that they are unredeemable and must be killed. Woods resolves all of her plots with marriages that bring happiness to all.
Wood was born in 1759 in York, which was part of Massachusetts until 1820 when the region became part of the new state of Maine. Her parents were descendants of aristocrats who instilled in the young Wood a respect for tradition and a desire to imitate their virtues. Although Wood was respectful of her father, she admired most her grandfather, Jonathan Sayward, the wealthiest man in York, who rose from obscurity to wealth as a landowner, ship owner, and merchant through his hard work and perseverance. Sayward’s loyalty to the Crown during the American Revolution resulted in his loss of political prestige, although Wood is believed to have modeled many of her influential and admirable male characters after him.
Wood married Richard Keating, who was a clerk in Sayward’s office, in 1778. Keating died five years later, and Wood, left with the task of raising their three children—the youngest born shortly after Keating died—began writing. In 1794, Wood wrote to her father indicating her interest in women novelists. In 1797, she published a poem that was addressed to parents whose son had drowned.
Wood wrote four novels between 1797 and 1804, beginning with Julia and the Illuminated Baron: A Novel Founded on Recent Facts Which Have Transpired in the Course of the Late Revolution of Moral Principles in France, which was published in 1800. Set during the French Revolution, it tells the story of a woman who spurns the advances of a nobleman. Dorval: Or, The Speculator, her second novel which came out the following year, is a suspenseful novel featuring another strong central female character. In 1802, she published Amelia: Or, The Influence of Virtue—An Old Man’s Story. Ferdinand and Elmira: A Russian Story was published in 1804, the year that she married General Abiel Wood. Her last work, a collection of stories called Tales of the Night, was not published until 1827.