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Cynthia M. Gorton (née Roberts; pen name, Ida Glenwood; February 27, 1826 - August 10, 1894) was a blind 19th-century American poet and author. For 20 years, Gorton lectured on behalf of the temperance movement. Gorton died on August 10, 1894, at the age of 68.

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Cynthia Gorton
"A Woman of the Century"
Born	Cynthia M. Roberts February 27, 1826 Great Barrington, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	August 10, 1894 (aged 68) Fenton, Michigan, U.S.
Resting place	Oakwood Cemetery, Fenton
Pen name	Ida Glenwood
Occupation	Poet, author
Language	English
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Emma Willard School
Spouse	Fred Gorton

Early life and education

Cynthia M. Roberts was born on the summit of one of the highest hills of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, February 27, 1826.[1] She lived in a humble home with poor and religious parents.[2] Her father, Samuel Roberts, died when she was one year old. She was the youngest of a family of five children, and the young mother, felt obliged in her widowed condition to yield to the help of relatives, and place her children among friends, whose care they shared for several years.[1]

As a bright, rosy-cheeked little girl with a "foolish habit of making rhymes," she often elicited the frowns of the elders and the laughter of her playmates. Unappreciated, she dwelt even at a young age in an atmosphere of unattainable hopes. She was always a deep thinker, wondering at the mysteries of life and death and adoring the sublimities of nature, being from childhood left much to her own ways and meditations.[2]

She became orphaned at the age of 14 while a pupil in the Emma Willard School, in Troy, New York, where she had lived with her widowed mother.[1] As a pupil in the seminary, for three years she had looked forward to the acquirement of a liberal education. She took great delight in school compositions and she wrote in such a style as to attract the favorable notice of her instructors. About that time her eyes, always full of laughter, began to show the incipient signs of dark shadow and severe inflammation which, later became blindness. She was solicited, by the preceptress, after her mother's death to continue her studies as a "teacher-scholar," but the state of her eyes would not permit it.[2][1]

Career

At the age of 21, she married Fred Gorton, a prosperous paper manufacturer. Six years after, during a painful and lingering illness, she became completely blind. With the return of physical strength, her mind became active and prolific,[1] but she was dependent on others to transcribe her thoughts to paper.[2]

Her first prose work, The Fatal Secret, was written wholly with a pencil, but so rapidly did she do this that her hand, all unconsciously to herself, formed an almost new alphabet, unreadable except by those who had followed the transformation. That was a serious impediment. Fortunately, the typewriter became available and was hailed by her with joy, and for seventeen years, covering the greater part of her literary life, she used it with nearly as much facility and precision as those with their full sight.[2] She published two books, her household and public duties having prevented her from preparing the manuscripts of her other productions for publication.[1] During her long literary career, she was widely known as "Ida Glenwood," this being her chosen pen-name. She was called " The Sweet Singer" and "The Blind Bard of Michigan."[1]

Her first published poem appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the editor, Mr. Harding, having accidentally seen it in her husband's office. He encouraged her to work and in a short time, many journals both in city and country were pleased to give publicity to her contributions. She wrote many serials, stories and poems for the Detroit "Christian Herald" and other papers and periodicals.[1] These included "The Fatal Secret, or a Romance of Mackinac Island," "Kate Wynans and the Forger's Daughter," "Ma Belle Queen," "The Mistress of Rosedale," "Tangled Threads," "Black France," and others.[2]

In the temperance movement, she became an earnest and efficient temperance worker, presiding at public meetings, lecturing and reciting original poems which were received by press and people with great enthusiasm. Her short career as a platform speaker began with the recitation of a poem entitled "Adolphus and Olivia, or a tale of Kansas."[2] Her oratorical powers were unusual, and her remarkable memory enabled her to recite for 1.5 hours a poem of historical and tragic interest. Of this Gov. Reuben Fenton said, at its second rehearsal, "One must conclude, after listening to 'The Blind Bard of Michigan,' that if we would find the best and deepest poetical thoughts, we must look for them in the emanations from the imprisoned soul." For 20 years, Gorton lectured many times before large and enthusiastic audiences finally relinquishing her speaking engagements because of exhaustion.[1]

Becoming an expert with the typewriter,[1] she was a prolific letter writer to "shut-ins," who belonged to the various societies where she was a member. Her days were also full of good works, of a highly religious character.[2]

Personal life

Gorton lived in Fenton, Michigan, where she died on August 10, 1894, aged 68. [3] She was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Fenton.[4][5]

Selected works

• Fatal secret, 1873
• The wife's appeal: a poem, 1873
• Lily Pearl and the Mistress of Rosedale, 1892

References

Attribution

• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Moulton, Charles Wells (1893). The Magazine of Poetry. Vol. 5 (Public domain ed.). Charles Wells Moulton.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Moulton. p. 328.

Bibliography

• Greasley, Philip A. (8 August 2016). Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, Volume 2: Dimensions of the Midwestern Literary Imagination. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-02116-8.

External links

• Works related to Woman of the Century/Cynthia M. R. Gorton at Wikisource
• Works by or about Cynthia Roberts Gorton at Internet Archive
• Select poems by Cynthia M. Roberts Gorton at The Magazine of Poetry

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