Jane Pentzer Myers (b. Germantown, Ohio, 1 April 1852;
d. Iowa City, Iowa, 31 January 1917)
**revised 28 October 2024**
Jane Pentzer Myers published only one book, a collection of twelve children’s fantasies, Stories of Enchantment (Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1901), illustrated by Harriet Roosevelt Richards. Several of the stories contain Native American elements, like “The Ghost Flower” and “The Corn Fairy”, and thus may be placed alongside similar works of the same time-period like Zauberlinda the Wise Witch (1901) by Eva Katharine Gibson and some of the stories by L. Frank Baum. Myers's narratives are skillful—one is surprised that this is her only book.
Very little has been known of the author, and what I had published here in 2012 turned out to be incorrect. Thanks to a relative of the author, I can now re-write this entry with correct information.
She was born Mary Jane
Pentzer, though she never used her first name, and was generally known as "Jennie." Her father was Reverend Jacob Pentzer (1808-1884),
her mother was Jacob's second wife, Martha Coons (1825-1913); they were apparently married in 1848. Martha Coons was the daughter of Rev. John Coons (1797-1869). Jennie had four half-siblings from her father's first marriage to Emma Meek (1812-1847); and several from her father's second marriage. The family moved from near Dayton, Ohio, to Wilton, Iowa in 1859. Jennie married John Edward Myers (1848-1898) in Wilton on 26 June 1874. The couple moved to Iowa City, where they had three sons, the second of whom died in infancy. Jennie was known as a gifted musician, but around the age of forty, she became invalided by rheumatism, and then she took up writing, reportedly contributing to many magazines (none of these writings have been traced). Her only book was published for the Christmas season in 1901. It was dedicated to her niece. After she was widowed, Jennie lived for a while in Muscatine, where one of her sons taught in the high school. She moved back to Iowa City around 1908, dying at her home, in the early morning of 31 January 1917, of complications of diseases.
*This entry was revised and updated on 10 October 2012; again on 15 January 2019; and again on 28 October 2024. I am grateful to Julie (Pentzer) Olson for the information presented here.
Got a typo in your text: 1847 not 1947. You got it right in the sub-heading.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I fixed it. No matter how many times one proofs one's own writing,it seems all too often that the eye sees what it thinks should be there, rather than what actually is there. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteYet another intriguing one. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
ReplyDeleteSadly, despite your praise (and that of Jessica Salmonson), this book has not yet been preserved and digitised so the public could enjoy it as well. A pitty, since it sounds very interesting indeed. I wonder if one could somehow get in touch with Google and ask them to consider doing this book as well, if they aren't going to already ?
I once found a place to query Google Books, but never received a reply. The policies behind what they do seems inscrutable.
DeleteThanks for the speedy response !
DeleteYes, Google seems rather hard to get in touch with in General. I did actually recieve an email from Gutenberg Australia at least, where I was told they didn't have any Marion Fox novels, as they never even saw any of them. I did manage to find "Ape's Face" elsewhere though.
Here is a list of interesting sounding books not in copyright in the US that sadly aren't availible online yet, despite for example Mrs. Oliphants were being rather well known.
James Muddock: Tales of Terror 1899
Jane Pentzer Myers: Stories of Enchantement or the Ghost Flower, 1901
Enoch Anson More (jr) :Out of the Past 1895
Betram Mitford: THE WEIRD OF DEADLY HOLLOW: A TALE OF THE CAPE COLONY, 1891, 2nd issue 1899
Alfred William Marshall, THE GOLDEN HAMMER AND OTHER ENGINEERING STORIES 1922
Hume Nisbet, THE HAUNTED STATION AND OTHER STORIES, 1894
Mrs Oliphant. STORIES OF THE SEEN AND UNSEEN 1889
Harriet E Orcutt THE EMPIRE OF THE INVISIBLES 1899
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteI'm putting together some stories from American folklore as a small collection and have included one or two from Jane Pentzer Myers. I like to try and put a brief biography of the original story tellers / collectors at the end of a collection and wondered, as I've struggled to find much online biographical data, whether I could, with your permission and an acknowledgment & link, use the notes that you have here?
I look forward to hearing from you in due course,
Yours sincerely,
Clive Gilson
Sure! Go ahead. Once your collection is published send in another comment so anyone who finds this blog post will be informed to look for it.
Delete