New book features Sandusky poet forgotten for more than a century

SANDUSKY — Carrie Ella Barney's career as an American poet was brutal and short.Although sick from childhood with tuberculosis, she published 31 poems, many in the Sandusky Register, before she died in 1873 at age 18. Mention her name to English professors in Ohio who specialize in 19th century American poetry, and you'll draw a blank.But Barney has finally caught a break, 145 years after her death. An attorney and writer in New York City is determined to restore Barney to what he said is her rightful place among American authors.Paul Joseph Coppa, 59, an attorney and author in New York City, last month published "Butterfly to the Skies," his 861-page opus on Barney, her poems and her family. He's already placed the carefully-researched book in many U.S. libraries, and hopes the book will draw attention to a poet he's dubbed "the Emily Dickinson of Sandusky."In a Friday telephone interview, Coppa said he's determined to "get her name out because of the quality of her writing and her life story.""It's a story of triumph and also tragedy," he said.Born in 1854 into a prominent Sandusky family — her cousin, Charles Dennis Barney, married Jay Cooke's daughter and founded what became the Smith Barney financial firm — Carrie Ella Barney seldom left the house because of her illness but published at least 31 poems. When she died in 1873, she was buried in the Barney family's area of Oakland Cemetery, with a tombstone in the shape of a tree stump the symbolized her truncated life.An obituary published on March 21, 1873, in the Sandusky Register said: "Always of slender frame and poor health, the mind of Miss Carrie was unusually developed, particularly in the direction of literature. Many of her poetical productions have been published in this paper and universally admired for the genius they displayed."A random discoveryBarney's "poetical productions" were soon forgotten, but her literary reputation took a turn for the better when Coppa bought a 19th-century scrapbook in a flea market in Manhattan. It included part of an article about Barney and a poem, "Life's Fever," which impressed Coppa.Determined to learn more, Coppa eventually learned Barney was from Sandusky, Ohio.His research eventually convinced him to take an Amtrak trip to Sandusky in 2013. He arrived at about 3 a.m., but armed with a map of Sandusky, walked to his hotel. He spent nearly two weeks in Sandusky, researching Barney at locations such as Sandusky Library.Coppa was too busy with his research to ride roller coasters or take part in many other tourist activities but recalls the trip fondly."I was thrilled to be actually walking on the streets and in the town where Carrie Ella and her family once spent her life," he said.Barney is so obscure, no photograph or drawing of her survives. That's understandable since any photo would have shown the effects of her terminal illness, something that neither Carrie Ella nor her family would have welcomed, Coppa said.The book offers many details about 19th century Sandusky life, although Coppa said he didn't realize he'd published his book in the year of Sandusky's bicentennial.Coppa's new book, "Butterfly to the Skies," isn't listed on Amazon but can be ordered from seattlebookcompany.com.The Milan-Berlin library has two copies and Sandusky Library plans to put it on the shelf next week, making the book easily available to any patron of a CLEVNET library.Hoping to attract book reviews or at least attention, Coppa placed the book at the Library of Congress and at many other libraries, including those at Harvard University and Amherst College.College professors commentThe Register contacted Larry Smith, a retired English professor at BGSU Firelands and a poet, and asked him if he's familiar with Barney. Smith said he isn't.So a reporter tried two English professors in Ohio who are experts on 19th century American poetry.Elizabeth Renker, professor in the English department at The Ohio State University, didn't know the name either but read the copy of "Life's Fever" emailed to her and then read other poems available online."Carrie Ella Barney was not an accomplished poet in the sense that she had not developed significant technical skill and she had not moved past writing rudimentary poetic cliches. Her interest as a poet would be primarily historical," Renker told the Register in an email."Now is a time when scholars are recording the social life of nineteenth-century poems, that is, how poetry was a meaningful part of everyday activities for regular people across society. Carrie Ella Barney would be part of this larger story. She is one of a vast number of young people in the nineteenth century who avidly wrote and shared poems as part of daily life — as young people use new media today," Renker said.Renker continued: "There were literally hundreds of newspaper poets publishing at this point in U.S. history. Newspaper poems at the time were simply part of everyday media consumption for all literate people. Most newspapers published poems regularly. People expected to see them and read them avidly. Additionally, there are numerous cases of young female poets who were ill and/or died who acquired public interest for this reason."Allan M. Emery, associate professor of English at Bowling Green State University, also drew a blank at Barney's name but accurately inferred much about her after reading "Life's Fever.""I like certain elements of the poem, including the reference to life's fever and the images of the launched butterfly and out-of-breath child, but the poem lacks thematic originality and the rhythm stumbles in quite a few lines. My own grandmother wrote very similar poems for her church bulletin back in the 1920s, and I suspect that many other pious women did likewise," Emery said in an email."I'm not very impressed with the poem, but I might become so if I knew more about the life and circumstances of the poet. She apparently died at age 19—of an illness? Did she perhaps write the poem on her deathbed?"Coppa said he knows Barney is an unknown writer."But I'm trying to change that," Coppa said.Read "Life's Fever" belowI am hot with the fever of life,I ache with the throbbings of pain;And I am soul-sick of the battles and strife,Where my beautiful hopes lie slain.So calmly I'll lie myself down,As a child that is spent of its breath;And seeing in dreams my hopes (fact) crowned,I shall know what the wise term, death.Yes, friends, you will name me as dead,And shed me a prayer-laden tear;But I, in my low, narrow bed,Shall smile and know nothing of fear.For lo! I'm but taking a rest;My Father will wake me at dawn;And I will arise, butterfly to the skies,Nor mourn for the earth-buried worm.Carrie Ella BarneyPublished March 8, 1872,Sandusky Daily RegisterThe grave of Carrie Ella Barney, a teen poet in the 19th century, stands in Oakland Cemetery in Perkins Township. Several members of Carrie Ella Barney's family rest in the Oakland Cemetery in a family plot. Carrie Ella Barney, a late 19th century poet, lived at 422 E. Washington Street in Sandusky.