author

Sophie Jewett

1861–1909

A gifted American poet, translator, and longtime Wellesley College professor, she wrote lyrical, reflective verse that won admiration in the late nineteenth century. Publishing some work under the name Ellen Burroughs, she also brought medieval and European texts to English-language readers.

1 Audiobook

The Pearl

The Pearl

by Sophie Jewett

About the author

Born in 1861, she became known as an American lyric poet whose writing blended delicacy, feeling, and literary craft. Alongside her poetry, she worked as a translator and built a respected academic career, teaching English literature at Wellesley College.

Her books included collections such as A Legend of Marseilles and Other Poems, The Pilgrim, and Other Poems, and God's Troubadour: The Story of St. Francis of Assisi. She also published under the pseudonym Ellen Burroughs and translated works including The Pearl, showing her deep interest in older European literature.

She died in 1909. Though not as widely read today as some of her contemporaries, she remains an interesting figure for listeners drawn to finely made poetry, literary scholarship, and the world of American women writers at the turn of the twentieth century.