very warm friend and frequent correspondent with Sigourney thereafter. When she was quite young, one of her neighbors, the Widow Lathrop, was friendly with her and encouraged her to develop. After her friend Madam Lathrop died, Lydia was sent to visit Mrs. Jeremiah Wadsworth, an acquaintance of the Widow Lathrop in [Hartford, Connecticut]. This visit put her in contact with Daniel Wadsworth. Daniel helped her set up a school for girls, arranging for daughters of his friends to attend. In 1815, he also helped her publish her first work, Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse, arranging the publishing and performing the initial editing himself. Sigourney described Wadsworth as her "kind patron" and says that he "took upon himself the whole responsibility of contracting publishers, gathering subscriptions, and even correcting the proof sheets". She goes on to say that "He delighted in drawing a solitary mind from obscurity into a freer atmosphere and brighter sunbeam". Marriage and married life On June 16, 1819, she married Charles Sigourney, and after her marriage chose to write anonymously in "leisure" time. It was not until her parents were in dire need and her husband had lost some of his former affluence that she began to write as an occupation. When she was referred to as the probable author of the anonymous Letters to Young Ladies, By a Lady she admitted authorship and began to write openly as Mrs. Sigourney. After her death, John Greenleaf Whittier composed a poem for her memorial tablet: She sang alone, ere womanhood had known The gift of song which fills the air to-day: Tender and sweet, a music all her own May fitly linger where she knelt to pray. Writings and criticism The main themes of Sigourney's writing include death, responsibility, religion — a strong belief in God and the Christian faith — and work. She often wrote elegies or poems for recently deceased neighbors, friends, and acquaintances. Some of her work exemplifies Victorian-era death literature which views death as an escape to a better place, especially for children. There is also a strong flavour of patriotism with many poems linking to the formation of the Republic, and also a large number of poems based on a wide variety of historical subjects. She was particularly strong in her condemnation of slavery and the mistreatment of the indigenous Americans. Another aspect of her work is humour, frequently expressed in poems