Mary Scrimzeour Whitaker

Mary Scrimzeour Whitaker (née, Furman; after first marriage, Miller; after second marriage, Whitaker; February 22, 1820 – March 12, 1906) was an American litterateur, author, poet, essayist, novelist, and critic. Born in South Carolina, she became a writer of New Orleans. Her written works include Poems and Albert Hasting, the first Southern novel published after the American Civil War. She was a typical "daughter of the South", and in everything she wrote, this characteristic was evident. After completing her education in Europe, she almost immediately began writing for magazines and Northern periodicals, contributing thousands of articles to the press. One of her most widely copied poems was a classic called the "Sacrifice of Iphegenie"; another, "Farewell to Scotland", thought written when she was but eighteen years of age, is a good example of her poetic productions.^[1]