Ada Reedy Vance

Ada Reedy Vance (née, Reedy; ca. 1840 – no sooner than 1896) was an American poet of the Southern United States. Her writings were eminently southern in manner and spirit.

Early life and education

Sallie Ada Reedy was born in northern Alabama about 1840. Captain James Reedy, her father, removed to Lexington, Mississippi, during her infancy.

From an early age, Vance enjoyed studying and was passionately fond of reading. She had a liberal education and traveled extensively in the U.S., having visited most places of note between the Canadian border and Texas.

While still a child, she began to write in verse.

Career

She contributed to a large number of the southwestern newspapers, and some in the northwest, and among these The Louisville Journal. In the literary weeklies of South Carolina before the war-especially The Examiner and The Courant, both published at the capital of the state-poems from her pen occasionally appeared.

A few years before the civil war, Vance's poem, "Charity", went the rounds of the newspaper world in the U.S., credited to the London Journal. It was assumed to be English, and was appreciated accordingly. Its reflective character was thought to indicate mature, if not advanced age in its author. But the history of this poem is noteworthy. The editor of the Jackson Mississippian gave it during the poem's early notoriety. It had been published originally, and under the author's full name, in his paper. It had had made its way somehow to England, and was reproduced there as an original contribution to the London Journal. It was upon its return to the U.S. that it went the rounds of the press so extensively. The author who received this unusual and high though merited compliment, was then a teenager, Miss Sallie Ada Reedy, of Lexington, Mississippi.

In addition to "Charity", other well-known poems are: "Death by the Wayside", a lyric tragedy related to the death of an only brother; and "The Sisters", an allegorical lyric. In 1860, her poems were collected for publication in book form. The "war" caused the idea to be abandoned for more auspicious times.

An intuitive sense of melody, rather than rigid art-study, rendered her versification singularly musical and correct. Her later productions bore evidence of stricter culture in verse-art. The character of Vance's poetry was subjective. Her melody of versification was considered remarkable. Her versification was easy and musical. Of her style, J. Wood Davidson wrote thus:—

"There breathes in all her writings an impassioned devotion, intense and pure, with a simplicity tender and graceful. This is the true region of emotional poet-life-the human in its warmest aspiration for the supra-human ideal. Her genius is vigorous, and at the same time exquisitely feminine-looking down upon life's struggling waters from woman's headland of catholic charity. Mystery-the nameless and never told-often lends a spell, dreary yet delicious, to her muse. But this characteristic is always subordinate to the wealth of her creative faculty."

In 1865, about the close of the war, she married Mr. Vance (died December 1868), of Kentucky, and resided in Lexington, Mississippi.

Around 1869, Vance was engaged upon a novel, with the theme of "love". This theme, without being original, was considered well suited to the author's peculiar mental nature.

From Mississippi, Vance removed first to Kentucky and, by 1896, to Arkansas.

Selected works

• "Charity"
• "Death by the Wayside"
• "Guard Thine Action"
• "Strauss' First Love "
• "The Bridal"
• "The Sisters"
• "The Two Angels"