Lucretia Peabody Hale (1820–1900)

Lucretia Peabody Hale was born into a distinguished literary family in Boston. She was the older sister of the Unitarian clergyman and writer Edward Everett Hale and of diplomat-politician Charles Hale, and a close relative of writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Lucretia never married. She wrote fiction for the Atlantic Magazine and other periodicals, and some nonfiction works, for more than 20 years before becoming a successful author of children’s books. These stories are still read today -- entertaining new generations of children and even adults. Miss Hale helped her brother Edward edit his Old and New Magazine from 1870 to 1875. She also was very concerned with education and in 1874 was one of the first women elected to the Boston School Committee.