[p. 13] so many busy people who give their leisure to literary pursuits.Webster defines the word literary as ‘versed in, or acquainted with literature, well learned, scholarly,’ also ‘occupied with literature as a profession.’ First and foremost, I would name in love and reverence Miss Mary Sargent; versed in literature, with an intimate knowledge of books and who made that knowledge of the utmost service to all. She wrote valuable papers relating to her profession, of which she was one of its most eminent members; and in collaboration with her sister, ‘Reading for the Young,’ 1890.
One of the most renowned people, and certainly the most prolific writer of Medford was Lydia Maria (Francis) Child, a sister of Rev. Converse Francis. Her first novel, ‘Hobomok,’ published in 1824, when she was only twenty-three years of age, was a great success, and was soon followed by the ‘Rebels’ in 1825. She edited a periodical for children called ‘Juvenile Miscellany,’ afterwards published as ‘Flowers for Children.’ ‘The Frugal Housewife’; ‘Evenings in New England,’ 1826; ‘First Settlers of New England,’ 1829; ‘The Girl's Own Book’; ‘The Coronal’; ‘The Mother's Book,’ 1831; and the ‘Ladies' Family Library,’ four volumes of short biographies, followed in quick succession. Some of her books reached twenty-five editions and were translated and printed abroad.
In 1833 she wrote a pamphlet, ‘An Appeal for that Class of Americans Called Africans,’ which cost her her popularity as woman and writer. She never faltered in her work for the anti-slavery cause, however, but left her home and went to New York to edit the ‘Anti-Slavery Standard,’ wrote ‘Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself,’ ‘Life of Isaac T. Hopper,’ and ‘Letters from New York’ and newspaper articles daily against slavery. She wrote for all time; the ‘Mother's Book,’ but for the diction, might have been written yesterday; we have not yet gone beyond her vision.
