Laura E. Richards
Laura E. Richards was an American author, born on February 27, 1850, in Boston, Massachusetts. She grew up in a privileged environment, being the daughter of prominent figures: her father, Samuel Gridley Howe, was a teacher for the blind and philanthropist, while her mother, Julia Ward Howe, was an influential author and social activist. Richards married Henry Richards in 1871, and her writing journey began after the birth of their first child, leading her to publish her first piece in St. Nicholas magazine in 1873. Over her career, she authored more than ninety books, primarily for children, with "Captain January" (1891) being her most celebrated work.
Richards was also deeply involved in social causes, founding the Women's Philanthropic Union and campaigning against child labor. She and her sister received the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1917 for their work on their mother’s life. Laura E. Richards passed away on January 14, 1943, in Gardiner, Maine. Her legacy endures through her contributions to children's literature, particularly in nonsense verse, with her book "Tirra Lirra: Rhymes Old and New" (1932) marking a significant milestone in American literature.
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Subject Terms
Laura E. Richards
Author
- Born: February 27, 1850
- Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
- Died: January 14, 1943
- Place of death: Gardiner, Maine
Biography
Laura Elizabeth Howe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 27, 1850. Her father, Samuel Gridley Howe, was a teacher of the blind and a philanthropist, and her mother, Julia Ward Howe, was an author and social activist who wrote the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Laura had a privileged upbringing, with a large and lovely home, summers in Newport, Rhode Island, European travel, five happy and healthy siblings, and ready access to books. She was taught at first by private tutors, but later attended private Boston schools, including Miss Caroline Wilby’s School. She described her childhood in two memoirs, When I Was Your Age (1894) and Stepping Westward (1931).
In 1869, Laura became engaged to an old friend, Henry Richards, and they married on June 17, 1871, settling down in Boston. Henry was an architect and illustrator, who later illustrated one of Richards’s books of nonsense, Sketches and Scraps (1881). It was not until the first of the couple’s seven children was born that Richards thought about writing. She found herself creating and reciting scraps of nonsense poetry to the children, and eventually wrote them down. Her first publication was in St. Nicholas magazine in 1873.
The family moved to Gardiner, Maine, in 1876, so Henry could work in the family paper mill, but Richards maintained her relationships with the Boston publishing world. Her first book, Five Mice in a Mouse-Trap (1880), was a collection of stories, and this was quickly followed by four more volumes of stories and verse. In 1885, the couple’s fifth child, Maud, died in infancy, and Richards’s grief led her to write more prolifically. She began writing longer stories for girls, and her most famous of these, the novel Captain January, appeared in 1891. This was her most popular book, and was twice made into a movie, once with Shirley Temple in the starring role.
Richards also wrote fiction and poetry for adults, but although the work was published and sold, it never drew the attention or the respect of her work for children. When the family paper mill closed in 1900, Laura and Henry opened a summer camp for boys in Maine, and ran it for thirty years. Like her mother, Richards was interested in social causes. She was the founder of the Women’s Philanthropic Union, campaigned against harsh child labor practices, and was president of the Maine Consumer’s League. She died in Gardiner, Maine, on January 14, 1943, having published more than ninety books for children and adults.
Richards and her sister, Maude Howe Elliot, won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1917 for their book about their mother, Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910. While Richards’s work might seem too sentimental for twenty-first century readers, her optimism and silliness made her a popular author for more than four decades. Her Tirra Lirra: Rhymes Old and New (1932) is considered the first important American book of nonsense verse, leading to a tradition that has outlasted her own work.