Mrs. Rowson

Born Susanna Haswell in Portsmouth, England, around 1762, she later became known as Susanna Rowson, or Mrs. Rowson. She spent part of her youth in Massachusetts, returned to England during the Revolutionary era, and eventually settled in the United States, where she built an unusually wide-ranging career as a novelist, playwright, poet, actress, and teacher.

She is best remembered for Charlotte Temple (1791), often described as America's first best-selling novel. The book's story of innocence, seduction, and loss made her one of the most widely read authors of her day, but her writing life was much broader: she also wrote for the theater, published educational works, and addressed moral and social questions in language meant to reach ordinary readers.

Rowson was also a serious educator and an early supporter of education for girls. In Boston she ran a school for young women, and that work became a major part of her legacy. Today she stands out not only as a popular early novelist, but as a writer and teacher who helped open cultural space for women in the new United States.