Lavinia Stoddard

Lavinia Stoddard (née, Stone; June 29, 1787 – November 8, 1820) was an American poet and school founder. Her poem, "The Soul's Defiance", was included in most of the anthologies published in the United States in the 19th century.

Lavinia Stone was born in Guilford, Connecticut, June 29, 1787. While she was an infant, her father, Elijah Stone removed to Paterson, New Jersey, and here she received, besides the careful instructions of an intelligent and judicious mother, such education in the schools as was at the time common to the children of farmers.^[1]

In 1811, she married Dr. William Stoddard, of Stratford, Connecticut.^[1] He was a graduate of Yale University in 1804; a graduate of the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1810, and a member of the Rensselaer County Medical Society in 1817.^[2]

In the then flourishing village of Troy, New York, on the Hudson River, the husband and wife established an academy, which they conducted successfully for several years.^[1] Here, they were friends of Francis Wayland, D.D., LL.D., afterwards of Brown University, and were both noticed in his memoir in an affectionate and complimentary way.^[2]

Stoddard wrote many poems, which were printed anonymously in the public journals, or addressed privately to her acquaintances. Her brother stated that the poem entitled "The Soul's Defiance" was interesting to her immediate friends for the truthfulness with which it portrayed her own experience and her indomitable spirit, which never floundered under any circumstances. This was written in a period of suffering and with a sense of injury. It is the last of her compositions, and perhaps the best.^[1] It is included in most of the anthologies published in the United States in the 19th century.^[3]

Stoddard became ill with consumption, and about the year 1818, she removed with her family to Blakeley, Alabama, where Dr. Stoddard soon after died. Partially recovering her own health, she revisited Troy, but the severity of the climate induced her to return to Blakeley, where, she died within a year of her husband, Mrs. Stoddard's death probably hastened by grief for her husband.^[2] She died November 8, 1820,^[1] and was buried at the Blakeley Cemetery.

• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Alden, J. B. (1891). Alden's Cyclopedia of Universal Literature, Presenting Biographical and Critical Notices, and Specimens from the Writings of Eminent Authors of All Ages and All Nations ... (Public domain ed.). J. B. Alden.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Gilder, Jeannette Leonard; Gilder, Joseph Benson (1895). "To The Editors Of The Critic. -By Juliet Lavinia Tanner". The Critic. Vol. 26–27 (Public domain ed.). Critic printing and publishing Company.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Griswold, Rufus Wilmot (1858). The Female Poets of America (Public domain ed.). Ardent Media. GGKEY:5L03N2GB1RC.

• Works by or about Lavinia Stoddard at the Internet Archive