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Author: Child, Lydia Maria

Biography:

Child, Lydia Maria, formerly Francis (1802-80: ANBO)

Born in Medford MA, the daughter of Convers Francis, a baker, and his wife Susanna (Rand) Francis. She attended public schools and spent one year in a seminary; her brother Convers, who encouraged her literary talent, went to Harvard and became a Unitarian minister. Her first novels, Hobomak (1824) and The Rebels (1825), launched her writing career. In 1825-8 she kept a private school in Watertown NY, and in 1826 she started a magazine called the Juvenile Miscellany. Probably the most successful of all her books was a practical guide to keeping house in America, The Frugal Housewife (1829). In 1828 she married the Boston lawyer and journalist David Lee Child. They both became active abolitionists: the sales of her books suffered as a consequence. From 1841 to 1843 she edited the National Anti-Slavery Standard, contributing weekly "Letters from New York" which were later collected as a book. (RPW; ANBO 7 Mar. 2018)

 

Other Names:

  • Mrs. Child
  • Mrs. D. L. Child
  • Mrs. Lydia Maria Child
 

Books written (3):

2nd edn. Glasgow/ Edinburgh/ London: John Reid and Co./ Oliver and Boyd/ Whittaker, Treacher, and Arnot, 1833