: "We are
not sure that any woman of our country could outrank Mrs. Child. This
lady has been before the public as an author with much success. And
she well deserves it, for in all her works, nothing can be found which
does not commend itself by its tone of healthy morality and good
sense. Few female writers if any have done more or better things for
our literature in the lighter or graver departments."

Mrs. Child began her literary career in 1824 with "Hobomok, a Tale of
Early Times," and she closed it with a volume of biography, entitled
"Good Wives," in 1871. Between these two dates, covering forty-seven
years, her publications extended to more than thirty titles, and
include stories, poems, biographies, studies in history, in household
economics, in politics, and in religion. "Her books," says Col.
Higginson, "never seemed to repeat each other and belonged to almost
as many different departments as there are volumes"; and while writing
so much, he adds, "she wrote better than most of her contemporaries."

If she had not done many things so well, she would still have the
distinction of having done several things the first time they were
ever done at all. It has been claimed that she edited the first
American magazine for children, wrote the first novel of puritan
times, published the first American Anti-Slavery book, and compiled
the first treatise upon what is now known as "Comparative Religions,"
a science not then named, but now a department in every school of
theology.

Mrs. Child's maiden name was Francis, and under that name she won her
first fame. She was born in Medford, Mass., Feb. 11, 1802. Her father,
Convers Francis, is said to have been a worthy and substantial
citizen, a baker by trade, and the author of the "Medford Crackers,"
in their day second only in popularity to "Medford Rum." He was a man
of strong character, great industry, uncommon love of reading,
zealous anti-slavery convictions, generous and hospitable. All these
traits were repeated in his famous daughter. It was the custom of Mr.
Francis, on the evening before Thanksgiving to gather in his
dependents and humble friends to the number of twenty or thirty, and
feast them on chicken pie, doughnuts and other edibles, sending them
home with provisions for a further festival, including "turnovers" for
the children. Col. Higginson, who had the incident from Mrs. Child,
intimates that in this experience she may have discovered how much
more b