Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards
Born	( 1850-02-27 ) February 27, 1850 74 Mount Vernon Street Boston, Massachusetts
Died	January 14, 1943 (1943-01-14) (aged 92) Gardiner, Maine
Notable awards	1917 Pulitzer Prize
Spouse	Henry Richards
Children	7 (Alice Maud, Rosalind, Henry Howe, Maud, John, Laura Elizabeth)
Relatives	Samuel Gridley Howe , father Julia Ward Howe , mother Maud Howe Elliott , sister

Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards (February 27, 1850 ? January 14, 1943) was an American writer. She wrote more than 90 books including biographies , poetry , and several for children. One well-known children's poem is her literary nonsense verse Eletelephony . ^[1]

Biography [ edit ]

Laura Elizabeth Howe was born in Boston, Massachusetts , on February 27, 1850. Her father was Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe , an abolitionist and the founder of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind . ^[2] She was named after his famous deaf-blind pupil Laura Bridgman . ^[3] Her mother Julia Ward Howe wrote the words to " The Battle Hymn of the Republic ".

In 1871, Laura married Henry Richards. He would accept a management position in 1876 at his family's paper mill at Gardiner, Maine , where the couple moved with their three children. In 1917 Laura won a Pulitzer Prize for Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910 , a biography , which she co-authored with her sisters, Maud Howe Elliott and Florence Hall .

She died on January 14, 1943, at Gardiner, Maine , 44 days before her 93rd birthday.

Legacy [ edit ]

A pre-kindergarten-to-fifth-grade elementary school in Gardiner, Maine , bears her name. Her children's book Tirra Lirra won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1959. Her home in Gardiner, the Laura E. Richards House , is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Works [ edit ]

Richards contributed poetry to St. Nicholas Magazine .

Biographies [ edit ]

• Letter and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe (Vol. I: 1906, Vol. II: 1909)
• Florence Nightingale: Angel of the Crimea (1909)
• Two Noble Lives: Samuel Gridley Howe and Julia Ward Howe (1911)
• Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910 (1915)
• Elizabeth Fry, the Angel of the Prisons (1916)
• Abigail Adams and Her Times (1917)
• Joan of Arc (1919)
• Laura Bridgman: The Story of an Opened Door (1928)
• Stepping Westward (1931)

Other books [ edit ]

• Baby's Rhyme Book (1878)
• Babyhood: Rhymes and Stories, Pictures and Silhouettes for Our Little Ones (1878)
• Baby's Story Book (1878)
• Five Mice in a Mouse Trap (1880)
• The Little Tyrant (1880)
• Our Baby's Favorite (1881)
• Sketches and Scraps (1881)
• Baby Ways (1881)
• The Joyous Story of Toto (1885)
• Beauty and the Beast (retelling, 1886)
• Four Feet, Two Feet, and No Feet (1886)
• Hop o' My Thumb (retelling, 1886)
• Kaspar Kroak's Kaleidoscope (1886)
• L.E.R. (privately printed, 1886)
• Tell-Tale from Hill and Dale (1886)
• Toto's Merry Winter (1887)
• Julia Ward Howe Birthday-Book (1889)
• In My Nursery (1890)
• Captain January (in 1936 made into a movie with Shirley Temple ) (1891)
• Star Bright (Captain January sequel, 1927)
• The Hildegarde Series
  • Queen Hildegarde (1889)
  • Hildegarde's Holiday (1891)
  • Hildegarde's Home (1892)
  • Hildegarde's Neighbors (1895)
  • Hildegarde's Harvest (1897)
• The Melody Series
  • Melody (1893)
  • Marie (1894)
  • Bethsada Pool (1895)
  • Rosin the Beau (1898)
• The Margaret Series
  • Three Margarets (1897)
  • Margaret Montfort (1898)
  • Peggy (1899)
  • Rita (1900)
  • Fernley House (1901)
  • The Merryweathers (1904)
• Glimpses of the French Court (1893)
• When I Was Your Age (1893)
• Narcissa, or the Road to Rome (1894)
• Five Minute Stories (1895)
• Jim of Hellas, or In Durance Vile (1895)
• Nautilus (1895)
• Isla Heron (1896)
• "Some Say" and Neighbors in Cyrus (1896)
• The Social Possibilities of a Country Town (1897)
• Love and Rocks (1898)
• Chop-Chin and the Golden Dragon (1899)
• Quicksilver Sue (1899)
• The Golden-Breasted Kootoo (1899)
• Sundown Songs (1899)
• For Tommy and Other Stories (1900)
• Snow-White, or The House in the Wood (1900)
• Geoffrey Strong (1901)
• Mrs. Tree (1902)
• The Hurdy-Gurdy (1902)
• More Five Minute Stories (1903)
• The Golden Windows (1903) illustrated by Arthur E. Becher ^[4]
• The Green Satin Gown (1903)
• The Tree in the City (1903)
• Mrs. Tree's Will (1905)
• The Armstrongs (1905)
• The Piccolo (1906)
• The Silver Crown, Another Book of Fables (1906)
• At Gregory's House (1907)
• Grandmother, the Story of a Life that Never was Lived (1907)
• Ten Ghost Stories (1907)
• The Pig Brother, and Other Fables and Stories (1908)
• The Wooing of Calvin Parks (1908)
• A Happy Little Time (1910)
• Up to Calvin's (1910)
• On Board the Mary Sands (1911)
• Jolly Jingles (1912)
• Miss Jimmy (1913)
• The Little Master (1913)
• Three Minute Stories (1914)
• The Pig Brother Play-Book (1915)
• Fairy Operettas (1916)
• Pippin, a Wandering Flame (1917)
• A Daughter of Jehu (1918)
• To Arms! Songs of the Great War (1918)
• Honor Bright: A Story for Girls (1920)
• In Blessed Cyrus (1921)
• The Squire (1923)
• Acting Charades (1924)
• Seven Oriental Operettas (1924)
• Honor Bright's New Adventure (1925)
• Tirra Lirra: Rhymes Old and New (1932) ^[5]
• Merry-Go-Round: New Rhymes and Old (1935)
• E. A. R. (1936)
• Please! Rhymes of Protest (1936)
• Harry in England (1937)
• I Have a Song to Sing You (1938)
• The Hottentot and Other Ditties (1939)
• What Shall the Children Read (1939)
• Laura E. Richards and Gardiner (a compilation of poems and articles, 1939)

References [ edit ]

• Laura E. Richards biography (readseries.com)

External links [ edit ]

• Antonio - audio poem
• Works by Laura E. Richards at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Laura E. Richards at Internet Archive
• Works by Laura E. Richards at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)