Edith Ogden Harrison

Edith Ogden Harrison (November 16, 1862 – May 22, 1955) was a well-known and prolific author of children's books and fairy tales in the early decades of the twentieth century. She was also the wife of Carter Harrison, Jr., five-term mayor of Chicago.

Edith Ogden was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana; she was a "belle of cultured, aristocratic habits who acquitted herself well in the parlors of the Potter Palmers and Marshall Fields" and other Chicago notables. [Edward R. Kantowicz, "Carter Harrison II: The Politics of Balance," in "The Mayors: The Chicago Political Tradition," ed. by Paul Michael Green and Melvin G. Holli, Carbondale, IL, Southern Illinois University Press, 2005; p. 20.] She married Carter Harrison on Dec. 14, 1887. Their first child died in infancy in 1889; they had two surviving children, Carter Henry Harrison V, born June 28, 1891, and Edith Ogden Harrison II, born Jan. 21, 1896. (Their son was the fifth of that name because his father, though known in his political career as "Junior," was in actuality Carter Henry Harrison IV. Confusion sets in when "Junior" is referred to as "Carter Harrison II.") The couple celebrated the fiftieth wedding anniversary of an apparently happy marriage in 1937.

In the first phase of her literary career, Edith O. Harrison concentrated on children's literature; later she wrote travel books and autobiographical works. Her early book "Prince Silverwings" was adapted by family acquaintance L. Frank Baum for a dramatization that never made it to the stage. (All Chicago theaters were closed after the Iroquois Theater fire on Dec. 30, 1903 caused 570 fatalities.) In the process, influences from Harrison's book appear to have found their way into Baum's "The Enchanted Island of Yew" and other works. [Katharine Rogers, "L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz," New York, St. Martin's Press, 2002; pp. 102-3.]

Harrison's 1912 novel "The Lady of the Snows" was made into a film of the same title in 1915. [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/228980/The-Lady-of-the-Snows/overview]

Works of Edith Ogden Harrison

* "Prince Silverwings and Other Fairy Tales," 1902
* "The Star Fairies," 1903
* "The Moon Princess," 1905
* "The Flaming Sword," 1908
* "Ladder of Moonlight," 1909
* "The Mocking-bird," 1909
* "Pole Star," 1909
* "Princess Sayrane," 1910
* "The Glittering Festival," 1911
* "The Lady of the Snows," 1912
* "The Enchanted House," 1913
* "Clemencia's Crisis," 1915
* "Below the Equator," 1918
* "Lands of the Sun: Impressions of a Visit to Tropical Lands," 1925
* "Grey Moss," 1929
* "The Scarlet Riders," 1930
* "Strange to Say: Recollections of Persons and Events in New Orleans and Chicago," 1949.

References

External links

* [http://www.owsley.org/AncestralReflectionsMilancie/HarrisonCarterIV(1860-1953)Biography.htm Carter and Edith Harrison.]