Author: Brooks, Mary Elizabeth
Biography:
BROOKS, Mary Elizabeth, formerly Aikin (1803-95: ancestry.com)
Pseudonym Norna
Born in Poughkeepsie NY on 15 Nov. 1803 to Belphame (Cooke) and John Aikin she was educated at Troy NY, at the school run by Emma Willard (q.v.). She contributed poetry to periodicals under the pseudonym "Norna." On 23 Jan. 1829, she married James Gordon Brooks (q.v.) and they brought out a volume of verse together--the long title poem being hers. They had an only child, Constantina, in 1835. After the death of her husband in 1841, she stayed in Albany with their daughter, who became a poet herself, with a volume of Ballads and Translations (1866). Mary Elizabeth Brooks died in Albany on 27 Feb. 1895. (RPW; ancestry.com 20 July 2025; Wikipedia 21 July 2025) HJ
Other Names:
- Mary E. Brooks
Books written (2):
New York: printed by J. and J. Harper, 1829
New York/ Philadelphia: Collins and Hannay, Collins and Co., G. and C. and H. Carvill/ Carey, Lea and Carey, Tower and Hogan, John Grigg, E. Littell, McCarty and Davis, and U. Hunt, 1829