Nielsen Hayden genealogy

Sylvia Wright

Female 1917 - 1981  (64 years)


Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    All

  • Name Sylvia Wright 
    Birth 21 Jan 1917  Berkeley, Alameda, California Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Gender Female 
    Death 9 May 1981  Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Person ID I23021  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
    Last Modified 25 Jan 2019 

    Father Austin Tappan Wright,   b. 20 Aug 1883, Hanover, Grafton, New Hampshire Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 19 Sep 1931, Las Vegas, San Miguel, New Mexico Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 48 years) 
    Mother Margaret Garrad Stone,   b. 19 Jul 1886, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1 Sep 1937, London, England Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 51 years) 
    Marriage 14 Nov 1912  Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 3
    Family ID F12402  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • As a San Francisco newspaper columnist, she coined the word "mondegreen."

      "Sylvia Wright, a Writer and Harpers Ex-Editor," in The New York Times, 13 May 1981:

      Sylvia Wright, a freelance writer who frequently and humorously commented in national magazines on trends in modern living, died of cancer Saturday at her home in Cambridge, Mass. She was 64 years old.

      Miss Wright was also a former editor of Harpers Bazaar. A collection of her magazine articles, ''Get Away From Me With Those Christmas Gifts,'' was published by McGraw-Hill in 1957. She was also the author of a novel, ''A Shark Infested Rice Pudding.''

      After her graduation from Bryn Mawr College, Miss Wright edited and prepared for publication ''Islandia,'' a Utopian novel about an imaginary country written by her father, the late Austin Tappen [sic] Wright, who was a professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania. The novel, which has been a steady seller, was published in 1942, reissued in 1958. It is currently published by Arno Press Inc. and the New American Library.

      At her death, Miss Wright was writing a biography of her great-aunt, Melusina Fay Peirce, an early feminist and first wife of the American physicist, mathematician and philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce.

      Miss Wright is survived by her husband, Paul J. Mitarachi; a son, John; a sister, Phyllis King of Manhattan; and two brothers, Benjamin and William Wright.

  • Sources 
    1. [S1809] Gregory Stone Genealogy: Ancestry and Descendants of Dea. Gregory Stone of Cambridge, Mass., 1320-1917 by J. Gardner Bartlett. Boston: Stone Family Association, 1918.

    2. [S2989] "Sylvia Wright, a Writer and Harpers Ex-Editor." The New York Times, 13 May 1981.

    3. [S4391] Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915, on familysearch.org.