Maria Louisa Eve was a 19th-century American author of poetry and prose. In 1866, she secured a prize of for a prose essay, and in 1879, a prize of the same amount for the best poem, expressing the gratitude of the South to the North for aid in the yellow fever epidemic. Her "Brier Rose" won the prize for the best poem offered by the Augusta Chronicle in 1889, and her poem, "The Lion and Eagle", a welcome to the England peace deputation, attracted much attention. Her writings were limited in number, but were of excellent quality. Of Eve's poems, the best known are "Conquered at Last," "Woes of Ireland," Unfulfilled," "Filling his Place," "Easter Morning," and "The Lion and the Eagle."
Early years and education
Maria Louise Eve was born 11 February 1842 near Augusta, Georgia. She was the daughter of Dr. Edward Armstrong Eve, a physician, and Sarah Jane Raiford. Her ancestors were of old English ancestry. Her great-great-grandfather, Oswell Eve, commanded a man-of-war, The Roebuck, under George III, in ante-revolutionary days. Upon the opening of hostilities, he requested "to be sent on other service, as he had many friends in the Colonies". The family afterward came to America, locating first in Philadelphia, removing to Charleston, South Carolina, and finally to the neighborhood of Augusta, Georgia. From childhood she showed a love for both poetry and prose.
Career
Her first literary success was a prize for the best essay awarded by Scott's Monthly Magazine. Thereafter, she contributed, from time to time, articles on literary and other subjects to some of the prominent magazines and papers of her day. In 1879, her poem "Conquered at Last" won the prize offered by the Mobile, AlabamaNews for the best poem expressing the gratitude of the South to the North for aid in the yellow fever scourge of the preceding year. That poem was reproduced in nearly all of the papers and many of the magazines of the North, and also in some periodicals abroad. Its great popularity throughout the North, attested by the large number of letters received by her from soldiers and civilians was a complete surprise as well as a great gratification to her. In June, 1889, a short poem by her, entitled "A Briar Rose", won the prize offered by the Augusta Chronicle. At the request of the secretary of the American Peace and Arbitration Society, in Boston, as a message of welcome to the English Peace Deputation to America in October, 1887, she wrote a poem, "The Lion and the Eagle". The underlying thought of the "Universal Peace," as found in one of her published poems, led the secretary to communicate with her in regard to it, and she subsequently wrote a number of poems bearing on the subject.
''Conquered at Last''
Shortly after a yellow-fever scourge swept up the Mississippi Valley the "Mobile News" offered a prize for the poem by a Southern writer which best expressed the gratitude of the Southern heart towards the people of the North for the philanthropy and magnanimity so nobly and freely displayed during the pestilence. This offer called forth 77 compositions from various parts of the South, and the prize was finally awarded to Eve, the author of'' Conquered at Last."
