H. Trusta (1815–1852)

H. Trusta was the pen name of Elizabeth Wooster Stuart Phelps, born in Andover, Massachusetts.  In 1829, she was among the first class enrolled at the new Abbot Academy, one of the nation's first residential high schools for girls. In 1832, she attended Boston's Mount Vernon School and lived in the household of its principal, Rev. Jacob Abbott, a prolific writer and editor. While there, she published her first writings under the pseudonym "H. Trusta" (an anagram of Stuart) in Abbott's periodical The Religious Magazine. In 1842, she married Austin Phelps, a Congregational minister, with whom she had a daughter, Mary Gray Phelps. A few years later, despite chronic ill-health and the burdens of domestic life, Elizabeth began writing the Kitty Brown series and other religiously-themed books for children, publishing one volume per year for four years. In 1851, her book The Sunny Side; or, The Country Minister's Wife, became a bestseller and won her international recognition. Her 1852 semi-autobiographical short story, "The Angel over the Right Shoulder," appeared in many anthologies. She had two more children before dying at age 37, possibly of a brain disorder. Her oldest daughter adopted her name after her death, becoming Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, and she grew up to be famous writer.