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• 117 • By the late 1830s, Louisa Payson was a busy young woman, her life full of the reading, writing, debating, and teaching that characterized the work of the growing college world. Her father, Edward Payson, had been a famous revivalist preacher in Portland, Maine. As a trustee of Bowdoin College, he had assisted in its early promotion and trained many of its graduates in divinity. He had also trained his eldest daughter in the classical languages and subjects of the college world. By the age of sixteen, after her father’s sudden death, Louisa had published a popular novel, The Pastor ’s Daughter, based on this education by her father. Having found “remunerative ” success, Louisa, the eldest of five, supported her family with her writing, submitting stories and book reviews to various periodicals. By the 1830s she was also a seasoned instructor, having taught at female academies in New York City and then Portland, which also added to the family finances.1 Louisa Payson was a well-read, precocious young woman who excelled at reading, writing, and philosophical debate. She longed to labor permanently in the world of ideas, preferring to mingle with people who enjoyed what she called “the active spark of mind upon mind” by discussing “subjects I love most to talk about”—“books, authors, the laws of mind and spirit.” When she read favorite writers like Goethe, Lessing, Coleridge, and Wordsworth, she felt “admiration, reverence, and affection” for these “men of genius.” She also felt a puzzling “painful excitement” that she identified as a yearning to cultivate such genius in her own mind. As she noted in her literary journal, “Next to possessing genius myself would be the pleasure of living with one who possessed it.” By the late 1830s, as she entered her thirties, Louisa determined to pursue genius at all costs.2 Four “Ease and Alternate Labor” Working in the College World 118 • collegiate repuBlic This determination did not seem natural or healthy in a woman. Watching the trees outside her window one day, Louisa wondered if she could ever emulate their “eloquent” yet “silent” image, the paradoxical ideal of womanhood that was modeled by her mother and the many respectable married ladies the family knew in Portland. In her opinion, these women spent most of their mental energy learning how to “wave and bloom for others.” Even though since the death of her father much of her labor had been for the benefit of her family, she could not imagine herself leading that life forever. Additionally, since her “bump of combativeness” during debate was legendary among her friends, living in silence would be impossible . Louisa often pined to live in “the light of another world” in which she could explore intellectual ideas without such feelings of unease.3 When Louisa met Albert Hopkins of Williams College, of Williamstown , Massachusetts, in a Boston parlor in the summer of 1840, she was shocked to find a man who had not only read her book but encouraged her to produce more. As they chatted, the science professor let her know that he admired her attempt to explore her mental powers through literary means. At Williams he had been investigating his own powers though scientific experimentation. They came to an understanding, and Albert wrote to his mother that he had discovered an additional college lady for Williams, a woman “whom I love so much and who I think is so worthy of my warmest affections.” Albert was quick to note, however, that “my dear L” was also a published author. As he justified his choice of a wife to his mother, he was also preparing to justify it to his colleagues at Williamstown. Louisa’s ability to produce intellectual work would be as valued in the college world as her personality. Indeed, the word had spread about Albert’s matrimonial plan. He had heard already that “everybody” at Williams was “enquiring” whether he had read her book. He had, and he urged his mother to find a copy. All of the college families at Williamstown were “eager to see it for the purpose of finding something about her character.”4 As for Louisa’s character, Albert believed that she had the “aptitude” and “the education” to “fill an important niche in connection with an institution like ours.” As he later remembered, Louisa was a “lady of refinement and cultivated taste” who had great “expectations on coming to Williamstown.” She “expected much” from the “society of literary persons connected...

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