Anne Lynch Botta.
Anne Lynch Botta
Anne Lynch Botta [11. 11. 1815 – 3. 23. 1891] was an American poetess, pedagogue, and salonnière who rose to prominence on the New York City literary scene where she hosted a salon for over thirty years. Considered the best of its kind in the nation, Anne’s salon became a favourite gathering place of many of her century’s notables, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, Louisa May Alcott, Herman Melville, and others whose names have since fallen into obscurity.
In addition to masterminding her salon, Anne maintained a lifelong interest in pedagogy, which she explored by teaching and tutoring composition for over fifteen years in her younger life and remaining involved in progressive educational initiatives in her later decades. Her interest in both literature and pedagogy eventually led her to produce the 1860 tome Handbook of Universal Literature, which many colleges employed as their literature textbook by the close of the 19th century and which is still available for perusal in university libraries.
