Instead, she began to write for the most prestigious and popular of all women’s magazines of the period, Godey’s Lady’s Book, and thousands of subscribers read her work. Nothing could be farther from the truth than the story that she was an unknown amateur writer when Uncle Tom’s Cabin startled the world.

As long as she did what she knew was right, she declared, she shouldn’t care what others thought of her actions.

Two schoolmates became Hattie’s intimates, and they are worthy of mention because her friendship with them lasted for the rest of their lives. One was Catherine Ledyard Cogswell, the daughter of a distinguished physician and a member of one of Connecticut’s oldest families. The other was Georgiana May, whose father had died. Both girls had strong,

By 1842 she had published a large body of work, broad enough in scope for her to open negotiations with the Harper brothers of New York, who agreed to publish a collection of her New England short stories under the collective title The Mayflower. She received an advance royalty payment of $100, and in the next decade the book earned an additional

“her ill health was largely due to unregulated and unrestrained feeling. She lived overmuch in her emotions.”

immediately resumed her responsibilities, which included spending several hours each day at her writing desk.

“I don’t know as I am fit for anything, and I have thought that I could wish to die young, and let the remembrance of me and my faults perish in the grave, rather than live, as I fear I do, a trouble to everyone. You don’t know how perfectly wretched I often feel: so useless, so weak, so destitute of all energy. Mama often tells me that I am a

Harriet Elizabeth obviously had too little to occupy her active mind, so she was directed not only to master the abstractions of Butler’s Analogy but to teach a course on the book to girls of her own age. Harriet Elizabeth accomplished the terrifying assignment by keeping one chapter ahead of her students.

was one of the most dramatic mass migrations in history. But Mrs. Stowe lived in splendid insulation, concerning herself with her husband, children, and home and with her writing of short stories and articles dealing with domestic matters. Anything that her father, brothers, and sisters did was of vital interest to her, but beyond her limited