Eliza Clapp, 1811-1888

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No. 21545  Eliza Clapp, Studies in Religion

Eliza Clapp was a poet and a teacher in Sunday School.  Five of her poems were published in the Dial and were supposed to be have been written by Emerson at the time.  She was the author of Words in the Sunday School and Studies in Religion.

She was the adopted daughter of Isaac and Eliza Clapp and was probably Eliza’s niece.

On May 30, 1863 Eliza T. Clapp sold her adopted parents’ property at Upham’s Corner to Julia. K. Dyer, wife of Micah Dyer, Jr.  Eliza bought a house on Percival Street that in the twentieth century was featured as the first old house in the This Old House television series of that name.

No. 21544

Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism by Tiffany K. Wayne, New York, 2006, p. 51

Clapp, Eliza Thayer, 1811-1888

Poet and Sunday school teacher Eliza Thayer Clapp was in sympathy with the Transcendentalist religious critique and befriended such figures as William Henry Channing, Frederic Henry Hedge, Theodore Parker, and Elizabeth Palmer Peabody.  When a friend sent some of her poems to Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1840 he praised them for the poet’s ability to see beyond the personal to the universal.  Encouraged, she sent some of her writings to Margaret Fuller as editor of the new Transcendentalist literary journal, the Dial.  Fuller ultimately included four of Clapp’s poems in the July 1841 issue of the paper and two more poems appeared a year later in the July 1842 issue.  Her poems received the highest praise from readers and reviewers.  A piece entitled “The Future is Better than the Past” was even attributed to Emerson and erroneously printed multiple times under his name.  Clapp continued to correspond with Emerson about her writing, but no further work was published in the Dial.

Eliza Clapp was adopted by Isaac and Elizabeth Clapp.  It is probably that Eliza Thayer was Elizabeth’s niece and became Eliza Clapp when adopted.  The Clapps lived at Upham’s Corner in a house located where the Strand Theatre is located today.  Eliza inherited that property, sold it, and moved to the house on Percival Street that became the first This Old House project in the television series of that name.

Daughter of Boston, diary of Caroline Healey Dall, p. 394

  1. Eliza Thayer Clapp (1811-1888), adopted daughter of Eliza and Isaac Clapp of Dorchester, was the author of Words in a Sunday School. (Boston, 1842) and Studies in Religion. (New York: C. Shepard, 1845). According to her obituary, she was a “lady of superior abilities and attainments. Her knowledge of English and of German Literature was extensive and discriminating.”   See Ebenezer Clapp, Clapp Memorial: Record of the Clapp Family in America (Boston: D. Clapp, 1866), 264; Transcript, February 29, 1888. p. 1.

The Magazine of Poetry, a Quarterly Review, v. 1   Buffalo, 1889

Clapp.  One of the most notable of the poems published in the now famous Dial, was one with the title “The Future is Better than the Past,” which has been generally been ascribed to Emerson.  It is now known to have been written not by Emerson, but by Miss Eliza Thayer Clapp.  As generally printed it appears only in part.  Rev. George W. Cooke, of Dedham, Mass., who has written the history of the Dial, gives the poem in full.  Mr. Cooke says of it in his history of the Dial: “The poem in the first number of the second volume, entitled, ‘The Future is Better than the Past,’ has often been credited to Emerson.  It first appeared over his name n ‘Hymns for the Church,’ compiled by Rev. F. H. Hedge and Rev F. D. Huntington, in 1853.  Then it was so printed n the ‘Hymns of the Spirit,’ by Rev. Samuel Longfellow and Rev. Samuel Johnson, and in Dr. James Martineau’s ‘Hymns of Praise and Prayer.’  It was contributed to the Dial, at Emerson’s request, by one of his most ardent disciples, Eliza Thayer Clapp.  Miss Clapp was born in Dorchester, mass, and has always lived a quiet home-life in that suburb of Boston.  The transcendental movement brought new life to her Unitarian Faith, and she entered into its spirit with zeal.  As a Sunday School teacher, having charge of a class of girls from ten to fifteen years of age, she prepared her own lessons for their instruction. These were published as ‘Words in a Sunday-school.’  A little later, in 1845, another book, prepared n the same manner, was published as ‘Studies in Religion.’  These little books were received with much favor by the Christian Register, but she has published only a few pieces.  The five poems of hers printed in the Dial of July, 1841, all appeared there because Emerson solicited their publication.  The one which has been so often credited to him is worthy of his genius, and it embodies, as no other poem of the period does, the very heart and spirit of the transcendental movement.”

 

The entry in The Clapp Memorial, p. 264, for Isaac Clapp, entry for Isaac who married Eliza Cook (d. 1843 without issue) reads:

adopted daughter Eliza Thayer Clapp lived with them–a young lady of considerable literary talent, and the authoress of a work which took high rank as a religious and metaphysical essay.  He lived on the westerly side of Jones’s Hill, near the corner of what is now Hancock and Stoughton Streets.  The house which he built and lived in for more than 40 years has been re-modeled, and is now occupied by Micah Dyer, Jr. Esq.

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December 24, 2021

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