Ellen Sturgis Hooper

Ellen Sturgis Hooper (1812 – 1848) was an American poet. Her work is occasionally reprinted in anthologies.

Ellen Sturgis was the daughter of William Sturges, a wealthy Boston merchant.Biographical Note in the [http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss112_bioghist.htmlThe Sturgis-Tappan Family Papers, 1812-1982] , Five College Archives & Manuscript Collection, retrieved 22 July 2008]

She wrote occasional Transcendentalist poems, which were published in The Dial. Ralph Waldo Emerson commissioned poetry from her, and the final stanzas of one of her poems, "The Wood-Fire" appear in Henry David Thoreau's "Walden". [ [http://www.alcott.net/alcott/home/champions/Hooper.html Ellen Sturgis Hooper, 1812–1848] , Amos Bronson Alcott website] She was, besides, an acquaintance of William Ellery Channing, , Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry James.

She married Robert W. Hooper, and the couple had three children, one of which, Marian "Clover" Hooper, married Henry Adams and became a celebrated Washington, D.C., hostess and photographer.

Ellen Sturgis Hooper's early death at age 36 is said to have "enshrined her in the memories of her associates as a Transcendental angel." [ [http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/hooper-pm.html Ellen Sturgis Hooper, 1812-1848] , American Transcendentalism Web, Virginia Commonwealth University, retrieved 22 July 2008]

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