Lucy Virginia French

Lucy Virginia French
Born	Lucy Virginia Smith March 16, 1825 Accomack County, Virginia, U.S.
Died	March 31, 1881(1881-03-31) (aged 56) "Forest Home", near McMinnville, Tennessee, U.S.
Pen name	L'Inconnue (The Unknown)
Occupation	Author poet
Language	English
Spouse	John Hopkins French ​ (m. 1853)​
Signature

Lucy Virginia French (pen name, L'Inconnue (The Unknown); March 16, 1825 – March 31, 1881) was a 19th-century American author and poet from Virginia. Her blank verse was considered especially strong, and her themes were well chosen, mostly in their measure.^[1] she belonged to a cultured and wealthy family. Educated at Washington, Pennsylvania, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she lived until her marriage in 1853, to John Hopkins French, living after this at "Forest Home," near McMinnville, Tennessee. Her first volume of poems, "Wind Whispers," appeared in 1856. She wrote "Tecumseh's Foot," "The Great River," "The Lyre of Time," "The Palmetto and the Pine," "The Years," "Mammy," "Liberty Bells," and other poems, besides several novels and dramas. She took a keen interest in the political questions of the day and wrote about them. Her first novel, "My Roses," appeared in 1872, and her last one, "Darlingtonia," in 1879. Between the years 1856 and 1879, she was actively engaged as literary editor of a number of magazines and newspapers. She wrote under the name L'Inconnue (the unknown). Among her friends were James Russell Lowell, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., John Greenleaf Whittier, and William Cullen Bryant.^[2]