Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards (February 27, 1850 - January 14, 1943) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to a high-profile family. During her life, she wrote over 90 books, including children's, biographies

Biography

A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...

, poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

, and others. A well-known children's poem for which she is noted is the literary nonsense

Literary nonsense

Literary nonsense is a broad categorization of literature that uses sensical and nonsensical elements to defy language conventions or logical reasoning...

 verse Eletelephony.

Her father was Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe

Samuel Gridley Howe

Samuel Gridley Howe was a nineteenth century United States physician, abolitionist, and an advocate of education for the blind.-Early life and education:...

, an abolitionist and the founder of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind. Samuel Gridley Howe's famous pupil Laura Bridgman

Laura Bridgman

Laura Dewey Lynn Bridgman is known as the first deaf-blind American child to gain a significant education in the English language, fifty years before the more famous Helen Keller...

 was Laura's namesake.

Julia Ward Howe

Julia Ward Howe

Julia Ward Howe was a prominent American abolitionist, social activist, and poet, most famous as the author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".-Biography:...

, Laura's mother, was famous for writing the words to The Battle Hymn of the Republic

The Battle Hymn of the Republic

"The Battle Hymn of the Republic" is a hymn by American writer Julia Ward Howe using the music from the song "John Brown's Body". Howe's more famous lyrics were written in November 1861 and first published in The Atlantic Monthly in February 1862. It became popular during the American Civil War...

.

In 1871, Laura married Henry Richards. He would accept a management position in 1876 at his family's paper mill

Paper mill

A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier machine or other type of paper machine.- History :...

 at Gardiner, Maine

Gardiner, Maine

Gardiner is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, United States. The population was 6,198 at the 2000 census. Popular with tourists, Gardiner is noted for its culture and old architecture.-History:...

, where the couple moved with their three children. There is elementary school in Gardiner named after her, a Pre-Kindergarten through Second Grade school attended by students in Gardiner and South Gardiner.

In 1917, Laura won a Pulitzer Prize

1917 Pulitzer Prize

The 1917 Pulitzer Prizes were the very first to be presented. There were only four categories - the others that had been specified in Joseph Pulitzer's bequest were phased in over the next few years. The winners were selected by the Columbia University trustees. The first prize winner received $2000...

 for Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910, a biography

Biography

A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...

, which she co-authored with her sister, Maud Howe Elliott

Maud Howe Elliott

Maud Howe Elliott was an American writer, most notable for her Pulitzer prize-winning collaboration with her sister, Laura E. Richards, on their mother's biography The Life of Julia Ward Howe...

. Her children's book Tirra Lirra won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award

Lewis Carroll Shelf Award

The Lewis Carroll Shelf Award was started in 1958 by Dr. David C. Davis with the assistance of Prof. Lola Pierstorff, Director Instructional Materials Center, Univ. of Wisconsin and Madeline Allen Davis, WHA Wisconsin Public Radio. Awards were presented annually at the Wisconsin Book Conference...

 in 1959.

Works

• St. Nicholas (contributed poetry)
• Baby's Rhyme Book (1878)
• Babyhood: Rhymes and Stories, Pictures and Silhouettes for Our Little Ones (1878)
• Baby's Story Book (1878)
• Five Mice in a Mouse Trap (1880)
• The Little Tyrant (1880)
• Our Baby's Favorite (1881)
• Sketches and Scraps (1881)
• Baby Ways (1881)
• The Joyous Story of Toto (1885)
• Beauty and the Beast
  Beauty and the Beast
  Beauty and the Beast is a traditional fairy tale. The first published version of the fairy tale was a rendition by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in La jeune américaine, et les contes marins in 1740...
  
   (retelling, 1886)
• Four Feet, Two Feet, and No Feet (1886)
• Hop o' My Thumb
  Hop o' My Thumb
  "Hop-o'-My-Thumb", also known as "Little Thumbling" , is a literary fairy tale by Charles Perrault . At the age of 67, Perrault decided to dedicate himself to his children and published Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals , with the subtitle: Tales of Mother Goose...
  
   (retelling, 1886)
• Kaspar Kroak's Kaleidoscope (1886)
• L.E.R. (privately printed, 1886)
• Tell-Tale from Hill and Dale (1886)
• Toto's Merry Winter (1887)
• Julia Ward Howe Birthday-Book (1889)
• In My Nursery (1890)
• Captain January (later made into a movie with Shirley Temple
  Shirley Temple
  Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
  
  , 1890)
• Star Bright (Captain January sequel, 1927)
• The Hildegarde Series
  • Queen Hildegarde (1889)
  • Hildegarde's Holiday (1891)
  • Hildegarde's Home (1892)
  • Hildegarde's Neighbors (1895)
  • Hildegarde's Harvest (1897)
• The Melody Series
  • Melody (1893)
  • Marie (1894)
  • Bethsada Pool (1895)
  • Rosin the Beau (1898)
• The Margaret Series
  • Three Margarets (1897)
  • Margaret Montfort (1898)
  • Peggy (1899)
  • Rita (1900)
  • Fernley House (1901)
  • The Merryweathers (1904)
• Glimpses of the French Court (1893)
• When I Was Your Age (1893)
• Narcissa, or the Road to Rome (1894)
• Five Minute Stories (1895)
• Jim of Hellas, or In Durance Vile (1895)
• Nautilus (1895)
• Isla Heron (1896)
• "Some Say" and Neighbors in Cyrus (1896)
• The Social Possibilities of a Country Town (1897)
• Love and Rocks (1898)
• Chop-Chin and the Golden Dragon (1899)
• Quicksilver Sue (1899)
• The Golden-Breasted Kootoo (1899)
• Sundown Songs (1899)
• For Tommy and Other Stories (1900)
• Snow-White, or The House in the Wood (1900)
• Geoffrey Strong (1901)
• Mrs. Tree (1902)
• The Hurdy-Gurdy (1902)
• More Five Minute Stories (1903)
• The Green Satin Gown (1903)
• The Tree in the City (1903)
• Mrs. Tree's Will (1905)
• The Armstrongs (1905)
• The Piccolo (1906)
• The Silver Crown, Another Book of Fables (1906)
• At Gregory's House (1907)
• Grandmother, the Story of a Life that Never was Lived (1907)
• Ten Ghost Stories (1907)
• The Pig Brother, and Other Fables and Stories (1908)
• The Wooing of Calvin Parks (1908)
• A Happy Little Time (1910)
• Up to Calvin's (1910)
• On Board the Mary Sands (1911)
• Jolly Jingles (1912)
• Miss Jimmy (1913)
• The Little Master (1913)
• Three Minute Stories (1914)
• The Pig Brother Play-Book (1915)
• Fairy Operettas (1916)
• Pippin, a Wandering Flame (1917)
• A Daughter of Jehu (1918)
• To Arms! Songs of the Great War (1918)
• Honor Bright: A Story for Girls (1920)
• In Blessed Cyrus (1921)
• The Squire (1923)
• Acting Charades (1924)
• Seven Oriental Operettas (1924)
• Honor Bright's New Adventure (1925)
• Biographies
  • Letter and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe (Vol. I: 1906, Vol. II: 1909)
  • Florence Nightingale: Angel of the Crimea (1909)
  • Two Noble Lives: Samuel Gridley Howe and Julia Ward Howe (1911)
  • Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910 (1915)
  • Elizabeth Fry, the Angel of the Prisons (1916)
  • Abigail Adams and Her Times (1917)
  • Joan of Arc (1919)
  • Laura Bridgman: The Story of an Opened Door (1928)
  • Stepping Westward (1931)
• Tirra Lirra: New Rhymes and Old (1932)
• Merry-Go-Round: New Rhymes and Old (1935)
• E. A. R. (1936)
• Please! Rhymes of Protest (1936)
• Harry in England (1937)
• I Have a Song to Sing You (1938)
• The Hottentot and Other Ditties (1939)
• What Shall the Children Read (1939)
• Laura E. Richards and Gardiner (a compilation of poems and articles, 1939)

External links

• Antonio- audio poem