Ella Cheever Thayer
Born(1849-09-14)September 14, 1849
Portland, Cumberland County Maine, United States
DiedOctober 28, 1925(1925-10-28) (aged 76)
149 West Canton Street, Boston, Massachusetts, US
OccupationNovelist
Playwright
Telegraphist
Period1879–1897
GenreFiction
SubjectRomance
Literary movementSuffragette

Ella Cheever Thayer (September 14, 1849 – October 28, 1925) was an American playwright and novelist. Born in Maine, she worked as a telegraph operator and published several works in her lifetime.

Biography

She was the daughter of apothecary George Augusta Thayer (October 19, 1824 – December 13, 1863) and Rachel Ella Cheever Thayer (October 18, 1823 - May 15, 1907). One sister, Mary Georgie Thayer (October 9, 1869 – March 30, 1912), was a school teacher. Thayer eventually became a telegraph operator[1] at the Brunswick Hotel[2] in Boston, Massachusetts, who used her experience on the telegraph as the basis for her book Wired Love, A Romance of Dots and Dashes,[3] which became a bestseller for 10 years.[4]

She was also a playwright, having written The Lords of Creation[5] in 1883. Her play is reviewed in the book On to Victory: Propaganda Plays of the Woman's Suffrage Movement by Bettina Friedl, published in 1990 (ISBN 1-55553-073-7) and it was one of the first suffragette plays.[6]

She also wrote Amber, a Daughter of Bohemia,[7] a drama in five acts, in 1883. She also wrote short stories for magazines including "The Forgotten Past" in Argosy (January 1897).

Later life and death

She lived in Saugus, Massachusetts.[8] Thayer died of liver cancer; her ashes were placed on November 1, 1925 in Bigelow Chapel, Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

References

  1. ↑ Jackson, Maggie (December 19, 2004). "Balancing Acts". The Boston Globe.
  2. ↑ Collins, Paul. "Love on a Wire". Uncollected Paul Collins. Retrieved October 26, 2011.
  3. ↑ "Book Reference". Library of Congress Book lists. Archived from the original on July 12, 2012. Retrieved October 26, 2011.
  4. ↑ Jepsen, Thomas C. "Women Telegraphers and the Railroad in Pennsylvania". Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on May 14, 2008. Retrieved October 26, 2011.
  5. ↑ wjkennaugh (February 2, 2008). "Wired Love – A Romance of Dots and Dashes – Ella Cheever Thayer". No Link Left Unclicked (Blog). wordpress.com.
  6. ↑ "Suffragist Plays". Answers.com. Retrieved October 26, 2011.
  7. ↑ Library of Congress, Copyright Office (1918). "Dramatic compositions copyrighted in the United States, 1870 to 1916 .. (Volume 1)". Government Printing Office. p. 10.
  8. ↑ Robinson, E.P. "Sketch of Saugus" (PDF). The Bay State Monthly.
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