Introduction

Biography

Laura was the daugh­ter of Ju­lia Ward Howe and Sam­uel Grid­ley Howe, an abo­li­tion­ist and found­er of the Per­kins In­sti­tu­tion and Mas­sa­chu­setts School for the Blind. Sam­uel’s fa­mous pu­pil Lau­ra Dew­ey Lynn Bridg­man was Lau­ra’s name­sake.

In 1871, Lau­ra mar­ried Hen­ry Rich­ards. In 1876, he ac­cept­ed a man­age­ment po­si­tion at his fa­mi­ly’s pa­per mill at Gar­din­er, Maine, where the cou­ple moved with their three child­ren. An ele­men­ta­ry school in Gar­din­er was named af­ter her.

Works

In 1917, Laura won a Pul­itz­er Prize for Ju­lia Ward Howe, 1819–1910, a bio­gra­phy she co-wrote with her sis­ter, Maud Howe El­li­ott.

Her child­ren’s book Tir­ra Lir­ra won the Lew­is Car­roll Shelf Award in 1959.

Her oth­er works in­clude:

• 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, 1886
• Four Feet, Two Feet, and No Feet, 1886
• Hop o’ My Thumb, 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, 1890 (made in­to a mo­vie with Shir­ley Tem­ple in 1936)
• Queen Hil­de­garde, 1889
• Hildegarde’s Ho­li­day, 1891
• Hildegarde’s Home, 1892
• Melody, 1893
• Glimpses of the French Court, 1893
• When I Was Your Age, 1893
• Marie, 1894
• Narcissa, or the Road to Rome, 1894
• Hildegarde’s Neigh­bors, 1895
• Bethsada Pool, 1895
• Hildegarde’s Har­vest, 1897
• Three Mar­ga­rets, 1897
• Rosin the Beau, 1898
• Margaret Mont­fort, 1898
• Peggy, 1899
• Rita, 1900
• Fernley House, 1901
• The Mer­ry­wea­thers, 1904
• Five Min­ute Stor­ies, 1895
• Jim of He­las, 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 (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: D. Estes, 1902)
• More Five Min­ute Stor­ies, 1903
• 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
• Letter and Jour­nals of Sam­uel Grid­ley Howe, 1906–09
• 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
• Florence Night­in­gale: An­gel of the Cri­mea, 1909
• A Hap­py Lit­tle Time, 1910
• Up to Cal­vin’s, 1910
• On Board the Ma­ry Sands, 1911
• Two No­ble Lives: Sam­uel Grid­ley Howe and Ju­lia Ward Howe, 1911
• Jolly Jin­gles, 1912
• Miss Jim­my, 1913
• The Lit­tle Mas­ter, 1913
• Three Min­ute Stor­ies, 1914
• The Pig Bro­ther Play-Book, 1915
• Julia Ward Howe, 1819–1910, 1915
• Fairy Op­er­et­tas, 1916
• Elizabeth Fry, the An­gel of the Pri­sons, 1916
• Pippin, a Wan­der­ing Flame, 1917
• Abigail Ad­ams and Her Times, 1917
• A Daugh­ter of Je­hu, 1918
• To Arms! Songs of the Great War, 1918
• Joan of Arc, 1919
• 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
• Star Bright, 1927
• Laura Bridg­man: The Sto­ry of an Op­ened Door, 1928
• Stepping West­ward, 1931
• Tirra Lir­ra: New Rhymes and Old, 1932
• 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
• The Gold­en Win­dows: A Book of Fa­bles for Young and Old