Laura E Richards

Early Life and Family Background

Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards was born on February 27, 1850, at 74 Mount Vernon Street in Boston, Massachusetts.[1][2][7] She entered a family deeply engaged in reform, education, and literature. Her father, Samuel Gridley Howe, was a prominent abolitionist and social reformer, best known as founder of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind, the first school for blind students in the United States.[2][7] He was also active in antislavery campaigns and broader philanthropic efforts.

Her mother, Julia Ward Howe, was a poet, essayist, and influential activist in the abolitionist and women’s suffrage movements.[2][6][7] Julia is widely remembered for writing the lyrics to the Civil War anthem "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", but she also organized and spoke at reform meetings, advocated for women’s rights, and maintained an active literary life.

Growing up in this household, Richards was immersed in intellectual conversation and exposed early to the worlds of publishing, public speech, and social reform. She was tutored at home by private teachers and later attended local schools, receiving an education that combined classical learning with exposure to the arts and reformist thought.[7][11] Her parents’ connections brought her into contact with notable figures in Boston’s cultural and political circles.

Richards’ name itself reflects this milieu. Her father’s work with the blind included the celebrated case of Laura Bridgman, one of the first deafblind persons to be educated in the United States, and sources note that Richards was named in honor of Bridgman.[8] The intersection of disability education, abolitionism, and women’s activism would shape the moral concerns embedded in Richards’ later writings.

Marriage, Move to Maine, and Beginnings as a Writer

On June 17, 1871, Laura married Henry Richards, an architect and illustrator.[7] Their marriage marked a transition from Boston’s urban reform circles to a more domestic but still intellectually engaged life. In the mid‑1870s the couple moved to Gardiner, Maine, which became Laura’s primary home for the rest of her life.[1][3][10]

In Gardiner, Richards balanced family and writing. She and Henry had a large family: biographical sources list several children—Alice Maude, Rosalind, Henry Howe, Julia Ward, Maud (who died in childhood in 1885), John, and Laura Elizabeth—demonstrating the demands of domestic responsibilities she carried alongside her literary career.[7] Despite these obligations, she carved out time to write, often drawing inspiration from her children’s experiences and the rhythms of small‑town life.

Richards’ first published piece is reported to have appeared in St. Nicholas magazine in 1873, a leading American children’s periodical.[3] Beginning in the 1870s and accelerating in the 1880s, she increasingly devoted herself to writing for young readers. The home environment—storytelling, play, and the presence of multiple children—provided fertile ground for developing tales, verses, and serial narratives.

Career Development and Children’s Literature

By the early 1880s, Richards had transitioned into a sustained career as an author of children’s books. Around 1881, she published "Five Mice in a Mouse-Trap, by the Man in the Moon", one of her earliest substantial works for juvenile audiences.[1][15] This imaginative tale, mixing humor with gentle moral lessons, helped establish her reputation as a writer of entertaining, family‑friendly fiction.

Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, Richards produced a steady stream of books and stories. She became known for girls’ series fiction, including the Hildegarde series and the Margaret series, which followed the lives and moral development of young female protagonists in domestic and community settings.[1][10] These series reflected familiar Victorian ideals of character and duty while giving girls narrative centrality, enabling young female readers to see themselves as the subjects of ongoing stories rather than mere supporting characters.

Richards also wrote standalone novels and tales, such as "Captain January" (1891), which became one of her most celebrated works.[3] "Captain January"—a sentimental story about an orphan girl raised by a lighthouse keeper—was later adapted to the stage and film, further extending Richards’ reach within popular culture. The book’s emotional tone and seaside setting showcased her talent for combining vivid local color with appealing child characters.

By 1890, Richards published the collection "In My Nursery", featuring playful verse and stories aimed at very young children.[3][15] Scholars have identified this volume as an important step in the evolution of her nonsense‑poem style, as it emphasized sound play, rhythm, and imaginative exaggeration in ways that distinguished her work from more overtly didactic nursery literature.

Her productivity continued into the turn of the century. Around 1900, she released "Snow-White: or, The House in the Woods", a fairy‑tale‑inspired story that further demonstrated her range within children’s genres.[1][12] Over time, Richards’ oeuvre grew to encompass more than ninety books, including children’s novels, verse collections, biographies, and works for adult readers.[2][5]

Nonsense Verse and Major Literary Contributions

Richards is widely recognized for her contributions to children’s nonsense poetry. Her best‑known nonsense poem, "Eletelephony", remains popular for its humorous depiction of an elephant struggling to use a telephone, marked by tongue‑twisting wordplay and playful repetition.[2][4][8] The poem has been frequently anthologized and, in the twentieth century, was even adapted for children’s television, including an appearance on Sesame Street.[4]

Literary scholars and archivists at institutions such as the University of New England note that Richards holds "the distinction of being the first prominent American writer of nonsense verse for children."[5] While nonsense literature had precedents in British writers like Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll, Richards’ work adapted this tradition for American audiences and placed it firmly within the children’s nursery and schoolroom. Her verses often combined absurd scenarios with familiar domestic objects and animals, making them immediately accessible to young readers.

In 1932, Richards published "Tirra Lirra: Rhymes Old and New", a collection that later came to be regarded as a significant milestone in American children’s nonsense verse.[3] The book remained in print for decades, and sources note that one of her children’s works, likely Tirra Lirra, stayed continuously available for forty‑eight years, underscoring its popularity and staying power.[5]

Beyond nonsense verse, Richards wrote poetry and prose for adults, as well as biographies and autobiographical works. Her autobiography, "Stepping Westward" (1931), offered reflections on her life, literary career, and the social changes she had witnessed from the mid‑nineteenth to the early twentieth century.[10]

Biographical Writing and the Pulitzer Prize

Richards’ achievements were not limited to children’s literature. She also became a respected biographer. In 1891, she published an early biographical work on her mother, "Julia Ward Howe", contributing to the documentation of Howe’s reform activities and literary career.[16]

Her major biographical accomplishment came with "Julia Ward Howe, 1819–1910", a fuller, multi‑volume biography co‑written with her sisters Maud Howe Elliott and Florence Howe Hall. Released in the 1910s, this work combined family insight with historical research to trace Julia Ward Howe’s life from her early years through her involvement in abolitionism, women’s rights activism, and literary production.[2][10]

On June 4, 1917, when the first Pulitzer Prizes were announced, Laura E. Richards and Maud Howe Elliott were awarded the inaugural Pulitzer Prize in Biography for "Julia Ward Howe, 1819–1910".[2][4][5] The award placed Richards among the first cohort of Pulitzer laureates and made her one of the earliest women to receive a Pulitzer Prize, at a moment when few women were publicly recognized in major literary award programs.

Biographical and archival sources emphasize that Richards was "the first woman awarded the first Pulitzer Prize in the biography category," highlighting both her gender and the pioneering nature of the award itself.[5] While details about other categories’ recipients complicate claims about being the absolute first woman honored by the Pulitzers overall, Richards’ recognition undeniably broke ground for women biographers in the United States and underscored the seriousness of her historical work.

Social Activism and Community Work

Influenced by her parents’ reformism, Richards engaged actively in community philanthropy and social causes in Gardiner. Sources describe her as a philanthropist who organized local efforts to support families and address labor issues.[3][8]

One notable initiative was her role in founding the Women’s Philanthropic Union, a local organization designed to coordinate charitable work and assistance.[3] Through this union and other civic projects, Richards sought to improve living conditions for working families and to address inequities in her town.

Richards also campaigned against child labor, challenging the common nineteenth‑century practice of employing children in harsh, adult‑level work.[3][8] Her activism reflected broader Progressive Era concerns about child welfare and labor reform, and it resonated with themes in her writing, which often emphasize children’s emotional lives and the importance of nurturing childhood.

These activities situate Richards within the history of women’s grassroots activism. While she did not achieve national fame as a political leader, her local work in Maine exemplifies how women used voluntary associations and moral influence to press for social change in their communities, aligning domestic responsibilities with civic engagement.

Personal Life, Friendships, and Literary Networks

Richards’ personal life in Gardiner was marked by family responsibilities, long‑term community ties, and a network of literary friendships. She maintained correspondence with writers, including the poet Edwin Arlington Robinson, with whom she developed a personal friendship.[10] These relationships connected her to broader literary currents beyond children’s literature.

Despite the demands of raising several children, Richards wrote steadily, often drawing inspiration from family life. Her stories and poems frequently portray domestic scenes, parent–child relationships, and the emotional experiences of young people, suggesting that her own household provided both material and motivation for her work.

Richards lived in Gardiner for decades, becoming part of the town’s social fabric. Contemporary accounts and later local histories depict her as a respected figure whose literary fame coexisted with an approachable, civic‑minded presence.

Legacy and Historical Impact

Laura E. Richards’ legacy rests on several intertwined achievements: her pioneering role in American children’s nonsense verse, her extensive body of juvenile fiction, and her award‑winning biographical work on Julia Ward Howe.

In children’s literature, Richards stands out as one of the first American authors to adapt the playful absurdity of nonsense into forms specifically tailored for young readers in the United States. Archivists at the University of New England emphasize that she was "the first prominent American writer of nonsense verse for children," a distinction that places her at the head of a tradition later continued by many twentieth‑century poets.[5] Her poem "Eletelephony" remains a staple in collections of humorous verse, appreciated for its rhythmic inventiveness and comic charm.[2][4][8]

Her broader corpus of more than ninety books includes series that offered girls and young women sustained narrative attention, contributing to the diversification of children’s fiction in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.[1][2] Works like Captain January expanded the emotional and imaginative possibilities of juvenile narratives and resonated widely enough to inspire adaptations beyond the page.

Richards’ Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Julia Ward Howe solidified her status as a serious literary figure and historian of reform movements. The biography preserved detailed accounts of abolitionism, women’s rights activism, and Civil War–era culture, ensuring that Howe’s contributions would not be forgotten.[2][4][5] In women’s history, this intergenerational documentation—daughters chronicling their mother’s public life—is a powerful example of how women have archived and transmitted feminist legacies.

Institutional recognition of Richards continues through archival collections, such as the Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards papers at the University of New England, and the Laura E. Richards Collection at Colby College.[5][10] These repositories preserve manuscripts, correspondence, and printed works, supporting ongoing scholarship on her writing and its context.

Later Life and Death

Richards remained active as a writer into her later years, publishing works through the 1920s and 1930s, including her autobiography Stepping Westward and the verse collection Tirra Lirra: Rhymes Old and New.[3][5][10] Her continued productivity at an advanced age reflects both her deep commitment to literary work and the evolving opportunities for women authors in the twentieth century.

On January 14, 1943, Laura E. Richards died in Gardiner, Maine.[1][2][3][7] She was 92 years old, having lived through the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Progressive Era, World War I, and much of World War II. Her death marked the end of a life that spanned nearly a century of dramatic social, political, and cultural change.

Richards’ works continued to circulate after her death, with some titles remaining in print for decades and appearing in anthologies and educational materials.[5] Her influence can be traced in the playful, language‑centered children’s poetry and fiction that became increasingly common in the later twentieth century.

In the landscape of women’s history, Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards embodies the figure of the domestic yet public intellectual: a woman who, while rooted in home and community, used the tools of writing, philanthropy, and biography to shape national conversations about childhood, reform, and memory. Her life and work illustrate how women in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries transformed personal experience and family heritage into enduring contributions to literature and social thought.