Harriette Newell Woods Baker
One of the most prolific -- and most forgotten -- authors of early nineteenth-century series for children was
Harriette Newell Woods Baker. She was born in Andover,
Massachusetts, on 19 August 1815 to Leonard and Abby Woods. Like a number of other nineteenth-century female series authors, Baker came from an
educated family: according to the National Cyclopedia of American Biography, her father, Dr. Woods,
"was the first professor in Andover Theological Seminary, and afterward [its] president." One of her girlhood friends (whom she later described as "my most intimate companion") was Elizabeth Stuart (later, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps), who also authored early girls' series and whose father was also a professor and Hebrew scholar at Andover Theological Seminary. [1] (Additionally, the NCAB notes that, while at Andover Theological Seminary, Baker's future husband, Abijah,
"became so proficient in Hebrew, that he was requested to correct the proof sheets of Prof. Stuart's Hebrew grammar." Prof. Stuart was, of course, Phelps's father.)
Also like several other
series authors, Baker began writing at an early age. She had her first story published in Youth's
Companion when she was only ten, and, consequently,
submitted other material to the Companion during her
girlhood and saw several additional pieces published in its pages.
Baker attended Abbot Female Seminary and "an academy in Catskill, N. Y." (NCAB). On 1 October 1835,
she married Abijah Richardson Baker, ten years her senior, who had recently graduated from Andover
Theological Seminary and was teaching English at the Phillips Academy in Andover. In 1838, the couple
relocated to Medford, Massachusetts, when Baker accepted the pastorate of its Congregational Church.
The family made additional moves as Rev. Baker responded to calls from different churches: circa 1851,
to the Central Congregational Church in Lynn; in 1855, to another Congregational Church in Wellseley; and in
1863, to the E Street Church in South Boston. During this period, Harriette Baker gave birth
to six sons, one of whom
died in infancy. (Four of the others became ministers; the fifth, a professor in the medical school at Harvard and
founder of the Baker Chair of Gynecology there.)
Baker was astonishingly -- some would say appallingly -- prolific, anonymously or
pseudonomously writing approximately "two hundred works," (NCAB)
at least half of which were children's books, most in series. Her first two series,
Little Frankie and Robin Redbreast (six volumes each) were published
in 1860 under the pseudonym Mrs. Madeline Leslie; [2] these were small volumes, intended for
the very young, as were "Aunt Hattie's Library for Girls" and
"Aunt Hattie's Library for Boys," published later in the decade under her other pseudonym,
"Aunt Hattie." Given Baker's background, it is perhaps not
surprising that most of her writings had a strong religious
slant and were heavily didactic. Her best-known work, Tim, the Scissors-Grinder (1861) was a staple in many church libraries and,
according to the NCAB also "was sold or given away by [the] thousands in England" in a "cheap reprint" edition.
Although her NCAB entry contains a glowing account of her writing
style, noting "Her characters are well drawn, and . . . strikingly
true to life . . . Her style is simple, chaste, often elegant," the
excerpts from a review of one of her children's books, Walter
and Frank; or, The Apthorp Farm, quoted in The Rise of Children's
Book Reviewing in America, 1865-1881, are less complimentary. The reviewer
found the book was "full of mistaken notions as to what it was
possible or desirable for boys to do" and dubbed the main character a "cunning
little prig." [3] The truth, perhaps, lies somewhere between: Baker's books reflected
the tone expected in religious fare for the young, and they were obviously successful
enough that her publishers felt justified in issuing more of her writings.
Baker became a widow in 1876 and sometime thereafter moved to New York, where
she died on 26 April 1893.
Notes
1. Information about the girls' friendship is courtesy of Sheri Sleyzak, "great granddaughter many times" of Harriette Baker. A more complete description of an encounter between Phelps and the Woods family appears on pp. 109-10, chapter 19 of Baker's biography of her father, Reminiscences and Records of Rev. Leonard Woods,
D.D. which Ms. Sleyzak has been transcribing and making available online. Information about Baker's ancestors and descendants is also available on Sleyzak's Woods Baker family history site, which includes a portrait of Baker's father.
2. Click here to read The Robins' Nest,
the first volume in the Robin Redbreast series.
3. Richard L. Darling, The Rise of Children's Book Reviewing in America, 1865-1881. Bowker, 1968.
Biographical sources
"Baker, Abijah Richardson." National Cyclopedia of American Biography. Vol. 14.
"Baker, Harriette Newell Woods." National Cyclopedia of American Biography. Vol. 14.
"Baker, William Henry." National Cyclopedia of American Biography. Vol. 15.
Return to main page
Copyright 2002 Deidre Johnson