Augusta Evans 11 oz. Natural Soy Candle

AUGUSTA EVANS
"She is as profound as the pages of a leather-bound book, rich with thought and perfectly cultured."

Scent: Rich Amber - A warm, earthy blend of sandalwood and musk. Notes of airy ozone and a hint of citrus open up to a cedar core.

Every candle is hand-poured, made from all natural and renewable soybean wax with 100% cotton wicks.

ABOUT AUGUSTA
Southern writer Augusta Jane Evans (1835 – 1909) had very little formal education, as was typical for young women in the early 19th century. However, under her mother’s guidance, she became a voracious reader from an early age. She presented her first novel, “Inez: A Tale of the Alamo,” to her father as a Christmas gift when she was just 15, and it was published anonymously a year later. The Evans family moved to Mobile when Augusta was a teenager, where she wrote her second novel, “Beulah,” at age 18. It was published in 1859 and sold over 22,000 copies during its first year, a staggering accomplishment. It established her as Alabama's first professional author. Her family used the proceeds from her literary success to purchase Georgia Cottage on Springhill Avenue.

Evans was an active figure during the Civil War, fiercely loyal to the Confederacy, but was unable to reach her New York publishers as long as the war persisted. After the Civil War ended, she went to New York with her next work, to be called “St. Elmo.” It sold a million copies within four months and became one of the most popular novels of the 19th century. 

In 1868, Evans married Colonel Lorenzo Madison Wilson, and the couple settled in a columned house called Ashland, not far from her home at Georgia Cottage. She became the first lady of Mobile society, supplanting Madame Le Vert who had fallen into social disfavor for having welcomed the Federal occupation of Mobile too warmly.

Wilson was the first American woman author to earn over $100,000. Her novel “St. Elmo” was frequently adapted for both the stage and screen. It inspired the naming of towns, hotels, steamboats and a cigar brand. She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1977 and was one of 12 inaugural inductees to the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame on June 8, 2015.

Wilson retired from writing during her final years, and her beloved Ashland burned to the ground in 1926.