Sophia Bledsoe Herrick was a science writer, editor, and literary critic.

Born 26 March 1837, the daughter of Albert Taylor Bledsoe

Albert Taylor Bledsoe

Albert Taylor Bledsoe was an Episcopal priest, attorney, professor of mathematics, and officer in the Confederate army and was best known as an architect of the Lost Cause and an apologist for the Confederate States of America.-Early life and education:Bledsoe was born on November 9, 1809 in...

, of Gambier, Ohio

Gambier, Ohio

Gambier is a village in Knox County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,871 at the 2000 census.Gambier is the home of Kenyon College and was named after one of Kenyon College's early benefactors, Lord Gambier....

, Sophia moved to New York after her marriage to the Reverend James B. Herrick, by whom she had several children. The couple separated when Herrick left the ministry to become a member of the Oneida Community

Oneida Community

The Oneida Community was a religious commune founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848 in Oneida, New York. The community believed that Jesus had already returned in the year 70 AD, making it possible for them to bring about Jesus's millennial kingdom themselves, and be free of sin and perfect in this...

. Sophia joined her father in Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, contributing to the Southern Review

Southern Review

The Southern Review, a literary journal co-founded in 1935 by Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks and located on the campus of Louisiana State University, publishes fiction, poetry, critical essays, interviews, book reviews, and excerpts from novels in progress by established and emerging writers...

and beginning a school for girls. She pursued an early interest in evolutionary theory by studying biology at Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

 and published scientific articles in Century and Scribner's Magazine

Scribner's Magazine

Scribner's Magazine was an American periodical published by the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons from January 1887 to May 1939. Scribner's Magazine was the second magazine out of the "Scribner's" firm, after the publication of Scribner's Monthly...

for a general audience. She became a frequent contributor of articles, writings as Mrs S. B. Herrick, and was for a time assistant editor to Richard Watson Gilder

Richard Watson Gilder

Richard Watson Gilder was an American poet and editor.-Life and career:Gilder was born at Bordentown, New Jersey. He was the son of Jane Gilder and the Rev. William Henry Gilder, and educated at his father's seminary in Flushing, Queens. There he learned to set type and published the St. Thomas...

at Century. Her later works were on the natural history and travel.

Herrick died on 9 October 1919.

Works by the author

• The Wonders of Plant Life under the Microscope, 1883
• The Earth in Past Ages, 1888
• Century of Sonnets, 1902