Margaret Sutton Briscoe was a prolific writer and an honorary member of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore. Although she published numerous texts, her greatest contribution to the Club appears to be her reputation. As I researched Briscoe, I kept finding short-story after short-story, as well as poems and essays; however, I barely found mention of her within the WLCB’s meeting minutes. Sure, she was in the meetings, but she only played a minor role. I found this very curious, but as I’ve learned more about the club, her honorary status has become less and less surprising.

Briscoe wrote and worked as a publisher in New York City, where she met and married her husband, Arthur Hopkins. She moved with him to Amherst, MA where they both served as faculty and influential individuals at Amherst College. She was involved in numerous philanthropic and women’s clubs, as expected of a society woman of the time. In fact, she checks off all of the expected boxes in my mind. She wrote, worked, traveled, devoted her time to social activities and clubs, knew Mark Twain, allegedly used the pseudonym “Travers Hopkins”, and boasted a high reputation. She possessed interesting anecdotes about her life, identifying as a true southern woman (in what I assume she would consider a sea of Yankees), was shipwrecked in the Adriatic Sea, and had a text written about her by a student. She opposed suffrage, a fact that is disappointing but not surprising for the traditional, southern Christian woman. She was a successful writer, counselor, and socialite, and although I imagine her southern sympathies would prove problematic (her family owned a plantation on the Chesapeake Bay), there remains something likable about her.

Briscoe still proves a bit of a mystery to me, even though biographical information is widespread thanks to Amherst College’s archives and Five College Archives & Manuscripts (asteria). I still wonder how much involvement she had with the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, and I hope to unearth some hidden minutes or mention of Briscoe. I enjoy her writing; it’s no surprise that she gained such popularity in periodicals like Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Harper’s Bazar, Century Magazine, etc. Her language, work, and biography mirror the witty and sassy look in the eyes of the woman whose photo accompanies this text. She is charming and challenging, and for this reason I keep hoping she will surprise me with more involvement in WLCB.  I expect she will remain a mere influential individual, bringing to the Club prestige and clout, but some part of me will hold out for a new discovery while continuing my research.

Biographical information found at The Consecrated Eminence: The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College and Five College Archives & Manuscripts Collections (hyperlinked above).