Maria Trinidad Howard Sturgis Middlemore was an American-Filipina author. She is notable for her collection and translation of Spanish-language folktales into English.
Writing
Her first work Round a Posada Fire: Spanish Legends appeared in 1881. In the preface, she declares that her intention is to introduce her readers to an overlooked element of Spanish culture: that of peasant folktales. "There is hardly a more superstitious creature on the face of the globe than the Spaniard. He delights in everything ghostly and supernatural..." she declares. She also notes that most of the stories have already been published in American journals, but adds the new "Lovers of Teruel," about a pair of star-crossed lovers who die from thwarted love. In 1885, her Spanish Legendary Tales was published. It contained thirty folktales from northern Spain. She wrote in the preface: “Friends have remarked to me on the weird and tragic air of many of these tales. The answer is simply that such, as a fact, is the general character of the Spanish legend.” The tales speak of ghosts, witches, religious miracles and werewolves. "The Serpent Woman" and "The Were-Wolf" are both noted as early examples of speculative fiction in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. She also translated, scored, and arranged many Spanish folk songs which continued to be popular long after her death.
Personal life
She was born in Manila, the daughter of United States Consul to the Philippines Henry Parkman Sturgis. The family made its fortune in trade between Canton and Manila through the firm Russell & Sturgis, co-founded by her father in 1828 as an offshoot of Russell & Co. She was the cousin of British politician Henry Parkman Sturgis, who was named after her father. She was raised as Roman Catholic. She spoke Spanish, French, Italian, German, and English fluently. She married English translator and journalist SamuelGeorge Chetwynd Middlemore. They married on April 18, 1881 at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, where their wedding was attended by Henry James. She died in 1890, only two weeks after her husband's death and was interred at Malvern. Her brother Frederick Russell Sturgis was her heir.
