Elizabeth Croom Bellamy

For other uses, see Elizabeth Bellamy (disambiguation).

Elizabeth Croom Bellamy
Kamba Thorpe
Born	Elizabeth Whitfield Croom (1837-04-17)April 17, 1837 Quincy, Florida, U. S.
Died	April 13, 1900 (aged 62) Mobile, Alabama, U.S.
Occupation	teacher author
Genre	novels short stories essays
Spouse	Charles E. Bellamy ​ ​ (m. 1858; died 1863)​
Children	2

Elizabeth Whitfield Croom Bellamy (née Croom; pen name, Kamba Thorpe; 1837–1900) was an American author of novels, short stories, and essays. She also taught school for many years. Her first novels were, Four Oaks (1867), and The Little Joanna (1876). Under her own name, she published Old Man Gilbert (1888) and Benny Lancaster (1890). She was a frequent contributor to the Atlantic Monthly, Appleton's Magazine, The Cycle, The Youth's Companion, and many other periodicals.

Early life and education

Elizabeth Whitfield Croom was born in Quincy, Florida, April 17, 1837. Her parents were William Whitfield and Julia (Stephens) Croom, natives of North Carolina, who removed to Florida prior to the American Civil War. She was a granddaughter of Gen. William and Elizabeth (Whitfield) Croom of Lenoir County, North Carolina, and of Cicero Stephens.

She was educated at Pelham Priory, Philadelphia, and Springer institute, New York City, and was an accomplished musician and linguist.

Career

She taught in a female seminary in Eutaw, Alabama, for several years. Upon the death of her husband and children, she began teaching in Mobile, Alabama, 1863, and continued in that profession until her death.

Bellamy wrote under the pen-name "Kamba Thorpe" (sometimes misspelled, "Kampa Thorpe") Four Oaks (New York, 1867), and Little Joanna (New York, 1876). Additional works included Old Man Gilbert (1888) and The Luck of the Pendennings (1895, Ladies Home Journal). She contributed essays to the Mobile Sunday Times.

Personal life

In 1858, she married Dr. Charles E. Bellamy, her cousin, a native of North Carolina, who had located in Florida. He was a Confederate surgeon, and died in the service in 1863. They had two children: Bryan, who at the age of four, and a daughter who died in infancy.

Elizabeth Croom Bellamy died April 13, 1900, four days before her 63rd birthday, in Mobile, Alabama.

Her biography, Elizabeth Whitfield Croom Bellamy: The Life and Works of a Southern Bell (University of Texas at Austin, 1996) was published by Dorothy McLeod MacInerney.

Selected works

• Four-oaks: A Novel (1867) (text)
• Elizabeth Bellamy's Composition Book (1872)
• The Little Joanna: A Novel (1876) (text)
• Old Man Gilbert (1888)
• Penny Lancaster, Farmer (1889)
• Benny Lancaster (1890)
• Ely's Automatic Housemaid (1899)

References

Attribution

• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Tardy, Mary T. (1872). The Living Female Writers of the South (Public domain ed.). Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger. p. 251.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Warner, Charles Dudley; Mabie, Hamilton Wright; Warner, Charles Henry (1897). A Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern: Dictionary of authors (Public domain ed.). International Society.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Willard, Frances Elizabeth (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Moulton. p. 73.

Bibliography

• Carty, T.J. (December 3, 2015). A Dictionary of Literary Pseudonyms in the English Language. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-135-95585-4.

External links

• Works related to Woman of the Century/Emily Whitfield Croom Bellamy at Wikisource
• Works by Elizabeth W. Bellamy at Project Gutenberg