author
Nancy Luce
1814–1890
A little-known 19th-century poet and folk artist from Martha’s Vineyard, she turned a life of hardship and isolation into vivid, deeply personal writing. Her tender verses about beloved bantam hens have made her one of the island’s most memorable voices.
1 Audiobook
A Complete Edition of the Works of Nancy Luce
by Nancy Luce
About the author
Born on August 23, 1814, Nancy Luce lived in West Tisbury, Massachusetts, on Martha’s Vineyard. She is remembered as a poet and folk artist whose life was shaped by illness, loss, and long periods of isolation.
After the deaths of her parents, she remained at the family farmhouse and became nearly homebound. To help support herself, she raised bantam hens and sold small self-published booklets of her writing, much of it centered on the chickens she loved and mourned with unusual care and feeling.
Nancy Luce died on April 9, 1890. Though she was once treated as an eccentric local figure, she is now recognized as a distinctive American voice whose work offers a moving glimpse of loneliness, resilience, and affection in everyday life.