Very little is known about Harriet E. Wilson's life. This is partly because it was only in 1983, when Henry Louis Gates researched into and republished Wilson's novel,

, in a facsimile edition, that her identity was established for sure. Well over one hundred years had elapsed since the first, unnoticed publication of

in 1859, and in the intervening period, records had been lost or destroyed, and the people who knew Wilson had all died. Consequently, since 1983 the large-scale interest aroused by

, generally recognized to be the first published novel by an African American woman and the first African American novel published in America, has not been accompanied by much successful research into its author's life. Even the date of Wilson's birth and the date of her…

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Citation: Ellis, R. J.. "Harriet Wilson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 January 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5038, accessed 24 November 2024.]