Channing, Grace Ellery, 1862-1937 - Social Networks and Archival Context (original) (raw)

Grace Ellery Channing (December 27, 1862 – April 3, 1937) was a writer and poet who published often in The Land of Sunshine.Grace Ellery Channing (December 27, 1862 – April 3, 1937) was a writer and poet who published often in The Land of Sunshine.Grace Ellery Channing (December 27, 1862 – April 3, 1937) was a writer and poet who published often in The Land of Sunshine.

She was born to William Francis Channing and Mary Jane (née Tarr) on December 27, 1862 in Providence, Rhode Island. Channing's father was an inventor who had worked with Alexander Graham Bell in developing the telephone and his father was William Ellery Channing, a noted early nineteenth-century Unitarian preacher and found of the American Unitarian Church. Also through her father, she was a great-great-granddaughter of William Ellery (1727–1820), a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. Channing had two siblings: Mary Channing Wood (who married Clarence Wood and had two children, Dorothy and Ellery) and Harold Channing. Channing received a private school education, graduating from the Normal Class for Kindergarten in 1882. After graduation, she taught at the free kindergarten in Providence.

Channing moved from Providence, Rhode Island, to Southern California in 1885, as part of a successful bid to cure her lung troubles.

In October 1885, Charlotte Perkins Gilman spent the winter with Channing and her family in Southern California when Gilman was suffering acute postpartum depression. During the winter of 1887 to 1888, Gilman and Channing returned east and spent part of their summers together in Bristol, Rhode Island. Gilman and daughter Katharine moved with Grace from Providence to Pasadena, where the Channing family owned a home, in the fall of 1888. From 1890 to 1893, Channing visited Augusta Senter and traveled around Italy and Germany. In 1894, Soon after the divorce from Gilman, Channing married Charles Walter Stetson. Channing was good friends with Gilman, and the three continued to have good relations after the divorce and marriage. Stetson and Gilman's daughter, Katharine went to live with Channing and Stetson when she was 9. In 1897 and 1898, Channing along with Stetson traveled around England, Italy, and Germany. They returned to Boston afterward. In April 1902, they moved permanently to Rome. Their friends in Rome included Elihu Vedder, Diego Angeli, and Franklin Simmons. After the death of Stetson in 1911, Channing returned to the United States.

In 1916, Channing was a war correspondent on the French and Italian fronts. The stories and poetry she wrote at this time were very conservative and critical of exemption from military service, encouraging the war effort and often idealizing the sacrifice of the wives and mothers of enlisted men. She admired Mussolini and was disappointed in Woodrow Wilson's peace solution.

From 1918 to 1936, Channing lived in New York in poor health and poverty until her death. She died at her home in Manhattan on April 3, 1937.