Margaret Sutton Briscoe (1864-1941)
Margaret Sutton Briscoe was a successful editor who provided an important conduit between members of the WLCB and nationally distributed print outlets. Born in Baltimore in 1864, she was made an honorary member of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore early in its formation. She always regretted not attending college, though she was well educated by private tutor, as were many upper-middle-class American women in the nineteenth century. Briscoe wrote prolifically for a variety of publications in New York, including Harper’s Bazaar and Harper’s Monthly, but after meeting Arthur Hopkins and marrying him in 1895, the couple moved to Amherst, MA, where he became a chemistry professor at Amherst College. Margaret Sutton Briscoe also taught at Amherst and served as a student counselor, belonged to the Ladies of Amherst Club, the Amherst School Alliance, and the Amherst Civic League. She traveled the world, opposed suffrage, identified as a southern woman, and knew Mark Twain. She was a prolific author of short stories and novels, many of which were published in various magazines published by the Harper and Brothers publishing house and later collected in book form. Briscoe had one daughter with Hopkins, Cornelia Dushane Hopkins; she died in 1941.
Sources
“Margaret Sutton Briscoe Papers,” Amherst College Archival Collections.
Contributors
Monica Malouf