Agnes Repplier


Agnes Repplier was an American essayist.

Early years

She was born in Philadelphia in 1855, of French and German extraction, and was educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Eden Hall at Torresdale, Philadelphia, and later at the Agnes Irwin School. Repplier was reportedly expelled from two schools for "independent behaviour" and illiterate until the age of ten. She received mentoring in writing by a nun who was herself a noted writer, Mary Paulina Finn, who published books, poetry and plays under the pseudonym M. S. Pine.

Career

Despite her school experiences, she became one of America's chief representatives of the discursive essay, displaying wide reading and apt quotation. Her writings contain literary criticism as well as comments on contemporary life. These characteristics were already apparent in the first essay which she contributed to the Atlantic Monthly, entitled “Children, Past and Present.”
Repplier's earliest national publications appeared in 1881 in Catholic World. Although she did write several biographies and some fiction, early in her career she decided to concentrate on essays, and for 50 years she enjoyed a national reputation. She was awarded honorary degrees by the University of Pennsylvania, Notre Dame, Yale, and Columbia University. She was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1928. Repplier received the Siena Medal from Theta Phi Alpha in 1939.

Personal life

Repplier was a devout Catholic, and had a conservative's outlook on the issues of the day. She was an advocate of feminism and opponent of American neutrality during World War One, though an opponent of radicals and activists. Living and dying in Philadelphia, she also spent time in Europe.
Edward Wagenknecht described her, in 1946, as "our dean of essayists".

Selected works

  • Philadelphia: The Place and the People
  • The Fireside Sphinx
  • In Our Convent Days
  • The Cat
  • Germany and Democracy
  • The Promise of the Bell: Christmas in Philadelphia
  • To Think of Tea!
  • In Pursuit of Laughter a historical study of types of humor
;Essay collections
  • Books and Men
  • Points of View
  • Essays in Miniature
  • Essays in Idleness
  • In the Dozy Hours and Other Papers
  • Varia
  • Compromises
  • A Happy Half-Century and Other Essays
  • Americans and Others
  • Counter-Currents
  • Points of Friction
  • Under Dispute
  • Times and Tendencies
  • Eight Decades: Essays and Episodes
;Biographical studies
  • J. William White, M.D.: A Biography
  • Mère Marie of the Ursulines: A Study in Adventure
  • Junípero Serra: Pioneer Colonist of California
  • Agnes Irwin: A Biography
;Short stories
  • The Catholic World
  • The Catholic World
;Selected articles
  • The Catholic World
  • The Catholic World
  • The Catholic World
  • The Catholic World
  • The Catholic World
  • The Catholic World
  • The Catholic World
  • ''The Atlantic Monthly''