Anne Hampton Brewster is an American novelist, journalist and foreign correspondent. She is born to Maria Hampton and Francis Enoch Brewster. In the 1840s, Brewster and
Charlotte Cushman meet in Philadelphia, where Cushman is manager of the Walnut Street Theatre. (Brewster's posthumous account of Cushman in
Blackwood Magazine details their early time together.) Brewster's brother disapproves of their relationship, about which Brewster subsequently wonders in her diary "is such love wrong?"
Cushman later supports Brewster in her decision to move to Rome, even though their relationship is never as intimate as in the 1840s (cf. Brewster's
article of 1878). In July 1869, Brewster notes in her diary (ABP 3 4, 112) that she has "received delightful letters from Europe latley, from
Emma Stebbins, Charlotte Cushman at Rome [...] They all urge me to come abroad [...] She (C.C.) begs me to join her in England this October and journey to Rome with her. I wish I could but it is impossible. However by another year I shall be ready [...]"
In a
letter to Helen Hunt [Jackson], Cushman talks disparagingly about Brewster and her work as a writer, which suggest a rift not yet covered in secondary material on their relationship:
"I wish I could find in any newspaper as real honest letters, & written in as good English as these, but Miss Anne Brewster is the kind of food my country people like to eat, so in Gods name let them have it. Better people have, & can again starve, while Mrs. Brewster & such writers flourish like a [?] bay tree" (March 29, 1871)
The
bulk of surviving letters from Anne Brewster are to her partner Mary Howell.
Brewster's diary entry from June 1876 is one of the key sources for details about
Cushman's break-up with Matilda Hays in 1857.
Brewster contributes to the following papers as a foreign correspondent (source Larrabee,
Anne Hampton Brewster: An Exhibition 16 March-31 August 1992, pp. 36):
- Boston Daily Advertiser, Feb 1870-June1883, monthly.
- Boston Sunday Herald, Jan 1887-Jan 1888, bi-monthly.
- Chicago Daily News, May 1885-Jan 1888, monthly.
- Cincinnati Commercial, Feb 1870-Feb 1871, monthly.
- Cincinnati Gazette, May 10, 1878.
- Daily Evening Telegraph (Philadelphia), July 1878-Jan 1882, weekly.
- Daily Graphic (New York), July 1876-Aug 1876, weekly.
- European Correspondent (Paris), Feb 23, 1887.
- New York Evening Post, Dec 22, 1886.
- New York World, Feb 1876-June 1878, weekly.
- Newark Courier, Oct 1869-Nov 1870, weekly.
- Parisian (paris), Nov 1879-April 1880, bi-monthly.
- Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, April 1869-June 1878, weekly.
- San Francisco Chronicle, March 1885-Sept 1885, bi-monthly.
She also contributes to the
Atlantic Monthly and
Lippincott's Magazine in the 1860s.
In 1868, Brewster moves to Rome permanently. In the so-called Eternal City, her weekly receptions in Palazzo Maldura are popular among US-American expatriates. In 1889, she moves to Siena where she dies in 1892.