Mary Mapes Dodge

Mary Mapes Dodge

Mary Mapes Dodge (January 26, 1831 – August 21, 1905) was an American children's writer and editor, best known for her novel Hans Brinker.

Biography

Mary was born Mary Elizabeth Mapes to Prof. James Jay Mapes and Sophia Furman in New York City. She acquired a good education under private tutors. In 1851 she married the lawyer William Dodge. Within the next four years she gave birth to two sons, James and Harrington. In 1857, William faced serious financial difficulties and left his family in 1858. A month after his disappearance his body was found dead from an apparent drowning, and Mary Mapes Dodge became a widow.

In 1859 she began writing and editing, working with her father to publish two magazines, the Working Farmer and the United States Journal. Within a few years she had great success with a collection of short stories, The Irvington Stories (1864), and a novel was solicited. Dodge then wrote Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates, which became an instant bestseller.

Later in life she was an associate editor of Hearth and Home, edited by Harriet Beecher Stowe. She had charge of the household and children's departments of that paper for many years. She became an editor in her own right with the children's St. Nicholas Magazine, for she was able to solicit stories from a number of well-known writers including Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, and Robert Louis Stevenson. St. Nicholas became one of the most successful magazines for children during the second half of the nineteenth century, with a circulation of almost 70,000 children.

Dodge died at her summer cottage in Tannersville, New York, in 1905.^[1] She is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery, at 1137 North Broad Street, Hillside, New Jersey.^[2]

Principal works

Prose

• Irvington Stories, 1864
• Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, 1865
• A Few Friends and How They Amused Themselves, 1869
• Baby Days, 1876
• Donald and Dorothy, 1883
• Baby World, 1884
• The Land of Pluck, 1894

Verse

• Rhymes and Jingles 1874
• Along the Way 1879
• When Life Is Young 1894

References

1. ^ "Mary Mapes Dodge Dead. The Poet, Author, and Editor of St. Nicholas Magazine.". The New York Times. August 22, 1905. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9F04E2DA103AE733A25751C2A96E9C946497D6CF. Retrieved June 2, 2010. 
2. ^ Mary Mapes Dodge, Find A Grave. Accessed August 26, 2007.

Sources

• "Dodge, Mary Elizabeth (Mapes)" American Authors 1600–1900 The H. W. Wilson Company, New York, 1938
• Howard Brown, John, The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, The Biographical Society, 1904. Google Books

External links

• Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates readable free online from the University of Florida Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature
• Other works by Mary Mapes Dodge readable free online from the University of Florida Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature
• Works by Mary Mapes Dodge at Project Gutenberg
• Her daughter-in-law, Mrs. James Mapes Dodge (Josephine Kern), was the sculptor of The Good Fairy Statue in 1916.

Persondata
Name	Dodge, Mary Mapes
Alternative names	Mapes, Mary Elizabeth (birth name)
Short description	Children's writer, novelist, poet, editor
Date of birth	January 26, 1831
Place of birth	New York City, New York, United States
Date of death	August 21, 1905
Place of death	Tannersville, New York, United States