author
Amelia Stratton Comfield
Best known for Alida; or, Miscellaneous Sketches of Incidents During the Late American War, this elusive 19th-century writer left behind a small but intriguing body of work tied to early American historical fiction and poetry.
1 Audiobook
Alida; or, Miscellaneous Sketches of Incidents During the Late American War. Founded on Fact
by Amelia Stratton Comfield
About the author
Amelia Stratton Comfield is a little-known 19th-century author remembered chiefly for Alida; or, Miscellaneous Sketches of Incidents During the Late American War. Founded on Fact. With Poems. Records from library catalogs and digital book collections show the work appearing in editions from 1841 and 1849, and it has survived through projects such as Project Gutenberg and The Online Books Page.
Reliable biographical details about her life are scarce. A digitized frontispiece and museum record identify her as Mrs. Amelia Stratton Comfield and describe a painted portrait from 1852, while one library record notes she was the wife of John F. Comfield or possibly John L. Comfield. Because the surviving evidence is thin and sometimes uncertain, much of her personal history remains unclear.
That air of mystery is part of what makes her interesting today. Her work offers a glimpse of early American popular storytelling, blending war-related incident, sentiment, and verse in a form that feels both literary and personal.