Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Wister, Annis Lee

WISTER, Annis Lee, translator, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 9 Oct., 1830. She is the daughter of the Rev. William H. Furness, and married, in 1854, Dr. Caspar Wister (a descendant of Caspar Wistar, who came to this country in 1717), who was born in 1817, and died 20 Dec., 1888. Her education was received chiefly at home under the care of her father, and she early began to translate stories from the German. Subsequently she translated and adapted various novels, including those of Eugenie Marlitt, Wilhelmine von Hillern, Friedrich W. Hackländer, Fanny Lewald, and others, numbering in all more than thirty volumes (Philadelphia, 1864 et seq.), among which are “The Old Mam'selle's Secret,” “Gold Elsie,” “The Second Wife,” “Violetta,” and “The Owl's Nest.” A uniform set of her German translations has been issued in thirty volumes (1888). She has also published, with Dr. Frederic H. Hedge, “Metrical Translations and Poems” (Boston, 1888).