Catharine Sedgwick This article or section does not cite its references or sources . You can help Wikipedia by introducing appropriate citations . Catharine Sedgwick Catharine Maria Sedgwick ( December 28 , 1789 – July 31 , 1867 ) , was an American novelist of what is now referred to as domestic fiction . Born in Stockbridge , Massachusetts , she was the daughter of a prosperous lawyer and successful politician , Theodore Sedgwick , who later became a judge of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and Speaker of the United States House of Representatives . She was sent to study at a finishing school in Boston , and as a young woman she took charge of a school in Lenox . Sedgwick 's conversion from Calvinism to Unitarianism led her to write a pamphlet denouncing religious intolerance that evolved into her first novel , A New-England Tale . In 1827 , her third novel Hope Leslie recounted a dramatic conflict between British colonists and Native Americans . The book earned a large readership and made her one of the most talked-about female novelists of the day . Sedgwick 's writings involved American settings , combining patriotism with protestations against Puritan oppressiveness . Her topics would become important to the creation of a national literature enhanced through her detailed descriptions of nature . Sedgwick created spirited heroines who , as the focal point of her stories , did not conform to the stereotypical conduct of women at the time . In her later work , Married or Single , she put forth the bold idea that women should not marry if it meant they would lose their self-respect . Much in demand , from the 1820s to the 1850s Catharine Sedgwick made a good living writing short stories for a variety of periodicals . Following her death in 1867 , by the end of the 19th century she had been relegated to near obscurity . Interest in her works and an appreciation of her contribution to American literature was largely stimulated by the advent of low-cost electronic reproductions that became available at the end of the 20th century . Novels : A New-England Tale ( 1822 ) Redwood ( 1824 ) Hope Leslie ( 1827 ) Clarence ( 1830 ) The Linwoods ( 1835 ) Married or Single ? ( 1857 ) Categories : Articles lacking sources | 1789 births | 1867 deaths | People from Massachusetts | Sedgwick family | Stockbridge , Massachusetts | Women writers | American novelists | American short story writers 