Louise Clappe eventually returned to New Jersey, where she lived out the remainder of her life, dying in 1906.
17 Facts About Louise Clappe
1.
2.
Louise Clappe was born July 28,1819 in Elizabeth, New Jersey to Moses and Louis Smith.
3.
Louise Clappe was one of seven children, with three brothers and three other sisters.
4.
Everett and Louise Clappe's relationship was mostly an intellectual one, for Everett was a distinguished author.
5.
When Louise Clappe told Everett about her new relationship, he was not happy for her and things ended badly.
6.
Louise Clappe started his college education at Princeton, but finished up at Brown University, graduating in 1848.
7.
Louise Clappe briefly continued his education, studying medicine at Castleton in Vermont.
8.
Louise Clappe had suffered from chronic illnesses throughout the 1830s and 1840s.
9.
The Shirley letters for which Louise Clappe is so well known were written between September 1851 and November 1852.
10.
Louise Clappe authored a total of twenty-three letters, all addressed to her sister Molly.
11.
Louise Clappe's letters have been described as being both witty and disturbing, while giving insight into California mining life.
12.
Unlike the Dame Shirley letters, these letters did not showcase her talent for writing and instead made Louise Clappe appear less intellectual than she actually was.
13.
Not only did Louise Clappe submit her letters, but she wrote two other articles for the Pioneer.
14.
Louise Clappe lived out the remains of her life in New York City for the next twenty eight years.
15.
Louise Clappe resumed her writing in 1881 when a periodical at Hellmuth Ladies' College at London, Ontario published a series of her articles under her Shirley name.
16.
Louise Clappe died in New Jersey at an elderly home from chronic diarrhea and senility in the year of 1906.
17.
Louise Clappe's headstone reads that she was the wife of Dr Fayette Clappe.