Lydia Maria Child

**Lydia Maria Child** (née **Francis**; February 11, 1802October 20, 1880), was an American writer. She wrote the Thanksgiving Day poem, "Over the River and Through the Wood". She founded and published _Juvenile Miscellany_, the first children's magazine in the United States. Child also wrote on housekeeping and child rearing, slavery, abolitionism, religion, women's issues, and Native American rights.

## Life

Child was born in Medford, Massachusetts to David Convers Francis, a baker, and Susannah (Rand) Francis.  She attended a local dame school, a seminary, and a Congregational church. She lived for a time with her married sister in Maine, and then with her brother, a Unitarian minister, in Watertown, Massachusetts.

In 1828, she married Harvard graduate, David Lee Child. He was a lawyer and abolitionist. His idealism prevented him from providing his wife with a comfortable home. The childless couple lived in near poverty. In the last years of her life, Child became a recluse. She kept company only with her husband. He died in 1874.

## Career

Her first novel, _Hobomok: A Tale of Early Times_, was published anonymously in 1824. It sold well. Another novel followed in 1825. In 1826, she founded and published _Juvenile Miscellany_, the first magazine for children in the United States. She wrote a book about housekeeping in 1829,_The Frugal Housewife_, a book about child-rearing in 1831, _The Mother's Book_, and a book for children, _The Little Girl's Own Book_, also in 1831.

She turned her social concerns to Native Americans in _The First Settlers of New England_ in 1829, and then to African Americans in 1833 with _An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans_. This book prompted many Americans to join the abolition movement, but it also caused Child to be shunned socially. Family friends withdrew their support for her children's magazine, forcing it into bankruptcy. Her nonfiction books about women's concerns and rights in the 1830s sold poorly.

In 1841, she moved to New York City. She edited an anti-slavery weekly for two years, then collected and published her columns written for a Boston newspaper.  Her husband was working as a journalist in Washington, D.C. during these years, but the couple reunited and moved to Wayland, Massachusetts in 1850. In the following years, she wrote books about female sex workers, the evolution of religion, African Americans, and Native Americans. Her last book, _Aspirations of the World_ appeared in 1878.

## Related pages

- List of poets from North America

## Infobox (writer)

- **name**: Lydia Maria Child
- **image**: Lydia Maria Child engraving.jpg
- **alt**: An 1882 engraving of Child.
- **caption**: 1882 engraving of Child
- **birth name**: Lydia Maria Francis
- **birth date**: February 11, 1802
- **birth place**: Medford, Massachusetts, United States
- **death place**: 91 Old Sudbury Road<br/ >Wayland, Massachusetts
- **resting place**: North Cemetery
Wayland, Massachusetts
- **occupation**: Writer
- **language**: English
- **nationality**: American
- **notableworks**: "Over the River and Through the Wood"
- **spouse**: David Lee Child (m. 1828)
- **signature**: Signature of Lydia Maria Child.png
- **signature alt**: L. Maria Child