Author: PRENTISS, Sophia
Biography:
PRENTISS, Sophia (1782-1807: ancestry.com)
The attribution of the posthumous volume Remains of My Early Friend (Keene NH 1828), based on a note in ms in one copy, is convincing, not least because the details of Prentiss's life correspond closely to those given by the anonymous editor of the book. (But there is no explanation as to why the editor left the work so late.) Prentiss was born in Reading MA, one of several children of the Rev. Caleb Prentiss and his wife Pamela Mellen. One of her brothers, Charles Prentiss (q.v.), was also a poet. Some of her poems were published separately, presumably in newspapers, in her lifetime. Both the poems and the selection from her letters record the major events of her life: spiritual strength in the face of illness, visits to members of the family settled in other parts of the country, deaths in the family, consolation to younger siblings, etc. In 1806 Prentiss nursed a brother in his last illness; she herself died in Wakefield MA about Oct. 1807 after suffering "a severe cold." (Remains passim; ancestry.com 5 Oct. 2020)