Sophie Almon Hensley
Sophie Almon Hensley (1866-1946) was a notable Canadian poet and feminist, recognized for her contributions to literature and progressive social causes. Born in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, she was educated in England and Paris before returning to Canada to study under prominent literary figures. Hensley's first poetry collection was published in 1889, coinciding with her marriage to barrister Hubert A. Hensley, after which they moved to New York City. In addition to poetry, Hensley co-wrote a musical play and engaged in various social and political activities, focusing on women's rights and child welfare. Throughout her career, she published under multiple pseudonyms, reflecting her involvement in progressive movements. Hensley's work included significant essays on gender roles and societal expectations, asserting the need for distinct identities for women beyond traditional roles. Although she maintained ties to Nova Scotia, Hensley traveled extensively and continued to publish until her later years, leaving behind a legacy of literary and social advocacy. She passed away in her home in Nova Scotia after a life dedicated to both creative expression and social justice.
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Subject Terms
Sophie Almon Hensley
Writer
- Born: May 31, 1866
- Birthplace: Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, Canada
- Died: February 10, 1946
- Place of death: Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada
Biography
Canadian poet and feminist Sophie Almon Hensley was born on May 31, 1866, in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, Canada, the daughter of a minister descended from Cotton and Increase Mather. Educated as a girl in England and in Paris, by 1885 she was living in her parents home and receiving literary instruction from a professor named Charles G. D. Roberts, who had recently begun an appointment at the University of King’s College in Halifax. Her first book of poems was published at Roberts’s urging in 1889, under her maiden name Sophie M. Almon.
That same year, Almon married barrister Hubert A. Hensley, and they relocated to New York City fairly soon after their marriage. Her second collection of poems, A Woman’s Love Letters, was published there in 1895. Also during this time, she and her husband co-wrote a musical play called Princess Mignon (1900), adapted from a story in one of Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books.
Around this time, Hensley became increasingly involved with progressive political causes surrounding the issues of opportunities for women and child welfare. She edited a women’s health magazine and was a member of several progressive organizations in New York, including the New York Assembly of Mothers, the New York Press Club, and the Society for Political Study. As she became more active in these political organizations, her writing increasingly reflected the social and political causes they advocated.
Perhaps due to this political activism, Hensley published under an assortment of pseudonyms. Her novel Love and Company (Limited) (1897), was first published under the names John Wernberny and Another and was then republished in 1901 under the names J. Try-Davies and Mary Woolston. The 1906 poetry collection The Heart of a Woman was attributed to Almon Hensley, and she used the name Gordon Hart for Woman and the Race, a work of straight sociology published in 1907.
After 1907, Hensley went to London for a period of several years, associating with British suffragist Christabel Pankhurst and developing her social agenda. In 1913, Hensley published Love and the Woman of Tomorrow, an ambitious tract arguing that the concepts of “wife,” “mother,” and “woman” were separate and should be socially discrete.
Although she always maintained a residence in Nova Scotia and considered herself Canadian, Hensley continued to travel around the globe in her later years. She published her last volume of verse in 1928. She moved with her family to the island of Jersey in 1937, but was forced to leave when the Nazis occupied the Channel Islands. She died in 1946 at her home in Nova Scotia.