Kate Ferguson
Encyclopedia
Kate Ferguson was a notorious "southern belle", who hailed from two of the South’s most prominent families. She was born Catherine Sarah Lee, to the southern poet Eleanor Percy Lee
and William Henry Lee, cousin of General Robert E. Lee
. Her life was mired in scandal, mostly through her husband, though she herself lived a brazen and racy existence as few contemporary southern ladies did. She wrote one novel, Cliquot, which met with lukewarm reaction and never afforded her the literary career her mother, her aunt Catherine Warfield
, her cousin Sarah Dorsey
, or the later members of her family William Alexander Percy
or Walker Percy
had.
Published in 1888, Cliquot is the story of Neil Emory, who owns an unpredictable and dangerous horse named Cliquot, whom he cannot find a rider for, as the horse has already killed several previous riders. A mysterious jockey appears who wins the owner a fortune and then turns out to be a beautiful woman named Gwendoline Gwinn, the horse’s previous owner. The story is imbued with lust in the "bodice-ripping style", where "female bosoms heave with desire and heroes express their love in ways that an earlier generation would have found much too suggestive." (Wyatt-Brown, p. 39)
She married the Civil War
hero General Samuel Wragg Ferguson, and their house became a social center in Greenville, Mississippi
. Through Percy connections, Samuel was appointed as treasurer of the Delta Levee Board. In 1894, he was caught embezzling $59,000 from the Board, and rather than stand and face his citizens in guilt, he fled the country, eventually surfacing in Tambillo, Ecuador
.
Kate herself lived a risqué life. More than once she was seen sitting at the head of the dining table at all male feasts held in a high class "colored" salon room for white on equal footing with all her companions. A great lover of horse races, having been introduced by her aunt Catherine Anne Warfield, who had assumed guardianship over the girl after her mother’s death from yellow fever
in 1849, she became intimately involved in all the seedier sides of its world, thus allowing her to make a realistic and frank portrayal in Cliquot.
She shocked all of her acquaintances by appearing in 1886 in an amateur production of "Sea of Ice", a then popular drama, "assuming the part of a young Indian maid, in very inadequate clothing – her kirtie only coming down to the knees on one side, and not that far on the other, with bare arms, bare bosom, bare legs, and big bracelets round her ankles." (Wyatt-Brown, p. 46)
After her husband’s disgrace, she discontinued writing and shrunk into penury, the object of local pity.
Eleanor Percy Lee
Eleanor Percy Lee, born Eleanor Percy Ware , was an American writer of the South who co-authored two books of poetry with her sister Catherine Anne Warfield, which were published in the 1840s...
and William Henry Lee, cousin of General Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
. Her life was mired in scandal, mostly through her husband, though she herself lived a brazen and racy existence as few contemporary southern ladies did. She wrote one novel, Cliquot, which met with lukewarm reaction and never afforded her the literary career her mother, her aunt Catherine Warfield
Catherine Anne Warfield
Catherine Anne Warfield was an American writer of poetry and fiction in the South. Together with her sister Eleanor Percy Lee, she was first of the published authors in the Percy family. The most noted authors have been William Alexander Percy and Walker Percy of the twentieth century...
, her cousin Sarah Dorsey
Sarah Dorsey
Sarah Dorsey was an American novelist and historian.-Biography:Born Sarah Anne Ellis to Thomas George Percy Ellis and Mary Malvina Routh in Natchez, Mississippi, she became a novelist and historian. She was known as the "companion" of Jefferson Davis, to whom she proved a great boon in his...
, or the later members of her family William Alexander Percy
William Alexander Percy
William Alexander Percy , was a lawyer, planter, and poet from Greenville, Mississippi. His autobiography Lanterns on the Levee became a bestseller. His father LeRoy Percy was the last United States Senator from Mississippi elected by the legislature...
or Walker Percy
Walker Percy
Walker Percy was an American Southern author whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is best known for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans, Louisiana, the first of which, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1962...
had.
Published in 1888, Cliquot is the story of Neil Emory, who owns an unpredictable and dangerous horse named Cliquot, whom he cannot find a rider for, as the horse has already killed several previous riders. A mysterious jockey appears who wins the owner a fortune and then turns out to be a beautiful woman named Gwendoline Gwinn, the horse’s previous owner. The story is imbued with lust in the "bodice-ripping style", where "female bosoms heave with desire and heroes express their love in ways that an earlier generation would have found much too suggestive." (Wyatt-Brown, p. 39)
She married the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
hero General Samuel Wragg Ferguson, and their house became a social center in Greenville, Mississippi
Greenville, Mississippi
Greenville is a city in Washington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 48,633 at the 2000 census, but according to the 2009 census bureau estimates, it has since declined to 42,764, making it the eighth-largest city in the state. It is the county seat of Washington...
. Through Percy connections, Samuel was appointed as treasurer of the Delta Levee Board. In 1894, he was caught embezzling $59,000 from the Board, and rather than stand and face his citizens in guilt, he fled the country, eventually surfacing in Tambillo, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
.
Kate herself lived a risqué life. More than once she was seen sitting at the head of the dining table at all male feasts held in a high class "colored" salon room for white on equal footing with all her companions. A great lover of horse races, having been introduced by her aunt Catherine Anne Warfield, who had assumed guardianship over the girl after her mother’s death from yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
in 1849, she became intimately involved in all the seedier sides of its world, thus allowing her to make a realistic and frank portrayal in Cliquot.
She shocked all of her acquaintances by appearing in 1886 in an amateur production of "Sea of Ice", a then popular drama, "assuming the part of a young Indian maid, in very inadequate clothing – her kirtie only coming down to the knees on one side, and not that far on the other, with bare arms, bare bosom, bare legs, and big bracelets round her ankles." (Wyatt-Brown, p. 46)
After her husband’s disgrace, she discontinued writing and shrunk into penury, the object of local pity.
Kate Ferguson Followers
- Sarah Jane Thoms
- Kate Dowell
- Faye Adamson
- Hannah Ellen Guy
- Carla O'Neill
- Lauren Mahan