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Jamison, Cecilia Viets Dakin

Main entryJamison, Cecilia Viets Dakin
Birth placeYarmouth, Nova Scotia
Birth date1 January 1837
Death placeRoxbury, Massachusetts, USA
Death date11 April 1909
Identifier0457
Birth nameCecilia Viets Dakin
Married nameHamilton; Jamison
Marital statusmarried
Paid worknewspaper staff; studio work; portrait painting
Other workpainting
BiographyCecilia Viets Dakin (1837-1909) was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, where she lived until her family moved to Boston when she was in her mid-teens, when She received an upper-class education, studying at private schools in Canada, New York, Boston, and Paris and developing her artistic talents. While she was working at a Boston studio she met her first husband, George Hamilton. Soon after her marriage, she moved to Rome for three years in order to study portrait painting. There she met the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who sufficiently admired her manuscript,WOVEN OF MANY THREADS, to arrange for its publication (which did not occur until 1871). When she returned to the United States Dakin maintained studios in New York and Boston and published her novel, SOMETHING TO DO (1871). This book was followed by more novels, short stories, and articles for popular magazines. In 1878 she married Samuel Jamison (1848-1902), a prominent New Orleans lawyer, and together they moved to Live Oak Plantation near Thibodeaux, Louisiana. Here they remained until 1887, when they moved to New Orleans and Dakin's writing career became firmly established. Although the couple had no children, her stories charmed children throughout the country. Her literary circle included such writers as Lafcadio Hearn, Grace King, George W. Cable, Eugene Field and Madame Blanc, all of whom attended the Mollie Moore Davis salon in New Orleans. Widowed in 1902, Dakin returned to Massachusetts and died in 1909 of heart disease.
Other notesCecilia was the subject of a 1931 MA Thesis by Harper Glover Brown, titled, "Mrs. Cecilia Viets Jamison: A Critical and Biographical Study."
ResidencesYarmouth, Nova Scotia (1837-); Boston, Massachusetts (c1852-); Rome (c1860s); Thibodeaux, Louisiana (c1878-1887); New Orleans (1887-1902); Massachusetts (c1902-1909)
Geographic regionsNova Scotia; USA
Primary genresfiction
BooksSOMETHING TO DO (1871); WOVEN OF MANY THREADS (1871); A CROWN FROM THE SPEAR (1872); ROPES OF SAND, AND OTHER STORIES (1873); MY BONNIE LASS (1877); THE LILY OF SAN MINIATO: A STORY OF FLORENCE (1878); THE STORY OF AN ENTHUSIAST (1887); LADY JANE (1891); SERAPH (1896); TOINETTE'S PHILIP (1898); THISTLEDOWN (1903); THE PENHALLOW FAMILY (1905); L'ORPHELIN DE LA NOUVELLE-ORLEANS (190-) with Eudoxie Dupuis
PeriodicalsAPPLETON'S JOURNAL; HARPER'S; SCRIBNER'S; ST. NICHOLAS
Other artspainting (portraiture)
Father's nameViets Orlando Dakin
Life dates of father19 May 1812, Digby, Nova Scotia - c1869
Mother's nameMary Elizabeth Bruce
Life dates of mother1814, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia - July 1885, Roslindale, Massachusetts
Spouse 1George Hamilton
Marriage 1 date1860
Spouse 2Samuel Jamison
Life dates of spouse 218 September 1848, New Orleans, Louisiana - 13 July 1902, New Orleans, Louisiana
Spouse 2 noteProminent New Orleans lawyer
Marriage 2 date28 October 1878
Biographical referencesDictionary of American Biography V
Bibliographic referencesAmicus (National Library of Canada); Library of Congress
Research referencescomplete
Archival referencesletter to William E. Ambler, George A. Smathers Libraries Special Collections, University of Florida
Image creditsLine drawing by Una Vernelli (Vancouver, British Columbia).
CopyrightThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/. Please cite Canada's Early Women Writers. SFU Library Digital Collections. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. 1980-2014.