User:Gamaliel/Petigru

Susan "Sue" Dupont Petigru King Bowen (October 23, 1824-December 11, 1875)

She was born Susan Dupont Petigru in Charleston, South Carolina, the youngest of five children of South Carolina politician James L. Petigru and his wife Jane Amelia Postell.

Sue Petigru was rebellious and her behavior was considered scandalous by the standards of South Carolina society. Even after her early and unhappy marriage to lawyer Henry Campbell King in 1843, she continued to openly flirt with other men. They had one child, Adelle "Addy" Allston King. Captain Henry King was wounded at the Battle of Secessionville in 1862 and died the next day.

Petigru began publishing stories in publications like Russel's Magazine, a prominent Charleston literary magazine, and the New York magazine The Knickerbocker. Set mostly in antebellum Charleston, her stories were acclaimed, though some in family and society objected to her frequently employing autobiography and and real life scandal in her work. Her work often satirized Charleston society and depicted objections to the institution of marriage. Her first book was a collection of five stories, Busy Moments of an Idle Woman (1853). Her first novel, Lily (1855), features an orphan turned heiress, much of it depicting her education in the ways of genteel southern womanhood. It was followed by the collection Sylvia's World; and Crimes Which the Law Does Not Reach (1859). Her final book was the novel Gerald Grey's Wife (1864), which due to the Civil War was published by a Virginia publisher and she received little money for it. Financial pressures caused her to largely give up writing.