Partner Laura Hibbard

Queer Places:
Wellesley College (Seven Sisters), 106 Central St, Wellesley, MA 02481
Indian Mound Cemetery, NY-38A, Moravia, NY 13118, USA

Sophia “Sophie” Jewett (June 3, 1861 – October 11, 1909), widely known during her early career by the pseudonym Ellen Burroughs, was a celebrated American lyric poet, translator, and professor whose life intertwined brilliant literary achievements with a pioneering role in women's higher education.

Born in Moravia, Cayuga County, New York, she was one of four children born to Dr. Charles Carroll Jewett (1827–1870) and Ellen Elizabeth Ransom (Burroughs) Jewett (1834–1868). Her siblings included Gertrude E. Jewett Hunt (1857–1944), Dr. Charles Sherman Jewett (1865–1925), and Louise Rogers Jewett, who grew up to become a noted art historian.

Tragedy struck early in her life when her mother passed away when Sophie was just seven years old, followed by the death of her father two years later when she was nine. Raised thereafter by her grandmother and her uncle, Daniel Burroughs, in Buffalo, New York, she developed a lifelong friendship with Mary Whiton Calkins, the daughter of her minister, who also later taught at Wellesley College. At the age of twenty, Jewett traveled extensively through Europe, with her reflections of these experiences informing her early poetry and sketches published in prominent periodicals like The Outlook and Scribner's Magazine.

Jewett initially published her poetry under the pen name Ellen Burroughs, borrowing her mother's maiden name. She worked skillfully across various poetic forms, including the rondeau, the sonnet, and the ballad, with much of her verse carrying rich lesbian themes. Renowned fellow poet Richard Watson Gilder praised her as a true poet blessed with a "golden gift." Her first published book under her own name was The Pilgrim, and Other Poems in 1896.

Beyond her original verse, she excelled as a translator, producing a celebrated version of the complex Middle English poem The Pearl in its original meter, alongside lyrical adaptations such as a "Nativity Song" from Jacopone da Todi. Her literary reach even extended into classical music when the renowned English composer Edward Elgar set her poem "The Poet's Life" to music in 1892 under her pen name. Additionally, she published a critical introduction to Tennyson's The Holy Grail in 1901.

In 1889, Jewett joined the faculty at Wellesley College as an English instructor, eventually rising to the rank of associate professor in 1897. During her tenure, she profoundly influenced students such as the writer Sarah Bixby Smith.

Amid an era when academic women faced societal pressure to renounce professional success for traditional marriage, Jewett and her colleagues carved out a liberating path. Within the Wellesley English department, faculty members frequently formed devoted partnerships known as Wellesley marriages. Jewett shared her life with colleague Laura Hibbard. By choosing each other rather than men, they fulfilled their longings for love, affection, eroticism, companionship, and mutual support while fiercely retaining the fruits of their professional ambitions. These relationships established a secure foothold in higher education and paved the way for future generations of women.

Jewett passed away on October 11, 1909, at the age of 48 in Buffalo, Erie County, New York, and was laid to rest at the Indian Mound Cemetery in Moravia, New York.

Following her death, a collection of southern European ballads she had translated from several languages was edited by literary scholar Katharine Lee Batesd and published posthumously. Wellesley College honored her enduring impact in 1911 by establishing a scholarship in her name and dedicating a stained-glass window to her memory in the college chapel.

References:

To Believe In Women: What Lesbians Have Done For America - A History – A Compelling Landmark Account of 19th and 20th Century Rights by Lillian Faderman

In Adamless Eden: The Community of Women Faculty at Wellesley by Patricia Ann Palmieri

Other references:

• The Pilgrim, and Other Poems (New York: Macmillan & Co., 1896) — Her first major collection published under her own name.
• Verses (1903). Posthumous poetry collections compiled and published after 1909.
• The Pearl: A Middle English Poem. A Modern Version in the Metre of the Original (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1908).
• Folk-Ballads of Southern Europe, Translated into English Verse — Edited posthumously by literary scholar Katharine Lee Bates (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1913).
• Tennyson's The Holy Grail — Edited with an introduction by Sophie Jewett (1901).
• Short sketches, essays, and early poetry published in prominent late-19th and early-20th-century magazines, including The Outlook and Scribner's Magazine.
• Lyrics for the song "The Poet's Life" (1892) composed by Edward Elgar (published under her pseudonym, Ellen Burroughs).
• Wellesley College Faculty Records (spanning her tenure as instructor and associate professor of English from 1889 to 1909).
• U.S. Federal Census Records and New York State Vital Records (documenting her birth in Moravia, NY, early life in Buffalo, and final resting place at Indian Mound Cemetery in Moravia, New York).

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