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Elizabeth Moorhead Vermorcken (c. 1865 – June 2, 1955)[1] was an American writer from Pittsburgh. She is best known for her novels set in Pittsburgh.[2] She generally wrote under her maiden name, Elizabeth Moorhead.[1] During her lifetime, she was considered Pittsburgh's foremost female author.[3]
Moorhead was born in Pittsburgh. Her exact birthdate is not known, but was just after the end of the American Civil War in 1865.[1] Moorhead's father, William J. Moorhead, owned a steel mill, and her grandfather, James Kennedy Moorhead, was a congressman.[1][4][5] Moorhead was educated at a private boarding school in Philadelphia. After graduation, she learned to speak French after a winter in Paris.[1] She married the Belgian artist Frederick Vermorcken in 1891, but the marriage ended sometime between 1894 and 1895, at which point Moorhead returned to America.[1] Between her marriage in 1891 and her return to Pittsburgh in 1910, she lived in Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, and Paris.[4]
From 1910 to 1928, she taught English at Carnegie Technical Schools (now known as Carnegie Mellon University).[1][2] Not much is known about her personal life during these years. She is known to have published a number of articles and short stories in various magazines, including Harper's, Scribner's, and Century.[1][5] She was a well-regarded speaker on literary subjects.[6] She retired from teaching in 1928.[7]
After her retirement, Moorhead transitioned from short stories to novels. In 1929, she published her first novel, Clouded Hills.[5] A reviewer for The New York Times wrote that "Miss Moorhouse has done well for her first novel. Perhaps with time she will strengthen her hand."[8] Her second novel, Answer Before Dark, was published in 1930. A review in The Washington Post described her writing in Answer Before Dark and in Clouded Hills, as having, "a delicacy of diction which is very charming."[9][10] Her third novel, The Forbidden Tree, was published in 1933.[2] All three stories are set in Pittsburgh and although they were not autobiographical, often drew inspiration from Moorhead's life.[2]
Moorhead moved to Florence, Italy, in 1933, after the onset of the Great Depression.[7][11] During her time in Italy, she began to write a history of Pittsburgh based on her family records.[1][11] She fled back to Pittsburgh in November 1940 after Italy joined World War II, leaving the majority of her possessions behind.[11] In Pittsburgh, she continued work on the book, eventually published in 1942 by the University of Philadelphia Press as Whirling Spindle.[7]
Her final book, These Too Were Here: Louise Homer and Willa Cather, was published in 1950, also by the University of Philadelphia Press.[12] It was a short reminisce about the early life of Pittsburgh novelist Willa Cather.[12][12] Although it became the basis of many biographies of Cather, later reviewers have described it as "highly romanticized" and have questioned its accuracy.[1]
Moorhead died in Pittsburgh on June 2, 1955.[1]
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