Storyweb: Storytime For Grownups

Lydia Maria Child: “Over the River and Through the Wood” In the 19th century, Lydia Maria Child’s name was nearly a household word. An outspoken abolitionist, women’s rights supporter, and crusader for Native American rights, Child was also a prolific author. A journalist and editor, she wrote novels and short stories (often using fiction to express her anti-slavery views), poems and children’s books, and domestic manuals for wives and mothers. Her most famous book – which went into 33 printings – was The Frugal Housewife, first published in 1829. Four years later, she published An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans, believed to be the first anti-slavery book published in the United States. She also served as editor for Harriet Jacobs’s influential 1861 slave narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. In all, Child wrote more than 50 books. Though Child was very prominent in her time, she comes down to us now primarily as the author of a poem originally published as “The New-Eng