Mary Moss
Photograph of Mary Moss, c. 1903
Photograph of Mary Moss, c. 1903
Born(1864-09-24)September 24, 1864
Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
DiedApril 2, 1914(1914-04-02) (aged 49)
Catania, Sicily, Italy
Resting placeSicily, Italy[1]
Notable works
  • Fruit Out of Season (1902)
  • A Sequence in Hearts (1903)
  • Julian Meldola (1903)

Mary Moss (September 24, 1864 – April 2, 1914) was an American author and literary critic.

Biography

Mary Moss was born in Philadelphia to Dr. William Moss and Mary Noronha.[2] She was a member an old and prominent Philadelphia Jewish family.[3] Her great-grandfather was businessman Hyman Levy, in whose fur store John Jacob Astor was an apprentice.[4] During the American Civil War, her father served as a private soldier in the 16st Pennsylvania Volunteers and as a surgeon in the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment.[5][6] She was educated at a private school in Chestnut Hill.[7]

In 1900 Moss began writing for the Philadelphia Times and the Philadelphia Press, to which she contributed sketches on the Yiddish theater and other subjects.[8][9] From 1902 she was a prolific contributor of fiction and essays to various magazines. Her Jewish novel Julian Meldohla appeared in Lippincott's Magazine in 1903. Besides two other novels, Fruit Out of Season (1902) and A Sequence in Hearts (1903),[10] she contributed short stories and essays to the Atlantic Monthly, McClure's Magazine, The Bookman, Ainslee's Magazine, and Scribner's Magazine.[11][12]

On her success as an author, Moss said of herself:

"Facts about me are terribly meagre. If I had to live over again and knew this 'fame' was to be thrust upon me I'd mis-spend every Saturday afternoon, so as to have a dark past to draw on. As it is, I've alwavs lived here and never experienced anything in the least noteworthy. I've always had a great curiosity about people in general, and very little about people in particular, the neighbours for instance. Always, without knowing why, I simply had to explore different kinds of people, had to understand how they felt about things, how they lived. It was imperative, though I did not realise why, or feel conscious of any definite aim."[13]

She died at the Rindone Hospital in Catania, Sicily,[14] several weeks after falling suddenly ill with a brain tumor.[1]

Selected publications

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Adler, Cyrus (1905). "Moss, Mary". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 96.

  1. ^ a b "Miss Sargeant Sails From Corsica Today". Harrisburg Telegraph. Vol. 83, no. 84. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. April 9, 1914. p. 6.
  2. ^ Stern, Malcolm H. (1960). First American Jewish Families (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Ottenheimer Publishers. p. 214.
  3. ^ "About People". The American Israelite. Vol. 60, no. 43. Cincinnati, Ohio. April 23, 1914. p. 7.
  4. ^ Hirsch, Emil G., ed. (April 25, 1914). "Domestic News". The Reform Advocate. Chicago, Ill. p. 340.
  5. ^ Wittenberg, Eric J. (2007). Rush's Lancers: The Sixth Pennsylvania Cavalry in the Civil War. Westholme. p. 236. ISBN 978-1-59416-032-5.
  6. ^ "Biographical Sketches of Jews Prominent in the Professions, etc., in the United States". The American Jewish Year Book. 6. American Jewish Committee: 158–159. 1904–1905. JSTOR 23600100.
  7. ^ Marquis, Albert Nelson, ed. (1910–1911). Who's Who in America. Vol. 6. Chicago: A. N. Marquis & Co. p. 1375.
  8. ^ O'Sullivan, Beth (1997). "Moss, Mary (1864–1914)". In Hyman, Paula E.; More, Deborah Dash (eds.). Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Routledge. pp. 945–946.
  9. ^ O'Sullivan, Beth (1999). "Mary Moss". Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
  10. ^ "Writers of the Day". The Writer. 16 (10): 154. October 1903.
  11. ^ Szold, Henrietta, ed. (1908). "A List of Articles of Jewish Interest". American Jewish Bibliography. Philadelphia: Jewish Public Society of America: 455.
  12. ^ The Library Index to Periodicals. Vol. 1. New York. April 1905. p. 80.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  13. ^ "Chronicle and Comment". The Bookman. 18. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co.: 225–226 November 1903.
  14. ^ National Archives and Records Administration (1914). Mary Moss. Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1835–1974. College Park, Maryland. p. 253 – via Ancestry.com.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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