Emily Edson Briggs

author

Emily Edson Briggs

1831–1910

A pioneering Washington journalist, she spent decades turning politics, society, and city life into lively newspaper columns and later gathered those memories into a book about the capital. Writing under the pen name "Olivia," she helped open political reporting to women in the nineteenth century.

1 Audiobook

The Olivia Letters

The Olivia Letters

by Emily Edson Briggs

About the author

Born in 1830 in New York and later active in Washington, D.C., Emily Edson Briggs was an American journalist and author best known by her pen name, Olivia. She became one of the early women to report from the nation’s capital, writing letters and columns that mixed political observation with sketches of everyday Washington life.

Briggs wrote for major newspapers and became known for her long-running Washington correspondence. Her work brought readers inside the culture of Congress and the capital at a time when journalism—especially political reporting—was still largely dominated by men.

She is also remembered for The Olivia Letters (1906), which looked back on roughly forty years of Washington history through her experiences as a newspaper correspondent. That combination of reporting, memoir, and city portrait makes her an appealing figure for listeners interested in journalism, politics, and nineteenth-century American life.